Children
by Kalenath Shok-Tan
Summary: This is a direct follow on to 'Weapons'. Since the Corpus do not clone, they need to expand the human race somehow. They do it the old fashioned way. This is a fanfiction, I own none of the rights to Warframe.
1. Chapter 1

**Hard**

_You... __**what?**_

The voice was stunned. More than stunned. The other had never heard that particular voice turn furious before. She hadn't thought it possible. But it was. She was.

The Lotus was _**angry**_.

_You... __**dare**__... _The voice if the odd being who served as both guardian and guide for the Tenno was... if anything, getting _angrier_.

_It wasn't __**us**__!_ The Reverend Mother of the Corpus Clergy said desperately. It wasn't a feeling she was used to. Usually _she_ was the one scaring people. But this was not a normal situation. _Or... it was, but... not intentional._ _The automated machinery took it out. She was __**bleeding**__ to death! The machinery was designed to protect the mother. It did as it was designed! It saved her life! But the damage... Lotus, we didn't __**know**__! Not until after she woke! And then... Vina didn't want to stress her. They couldn't even __**find**__ it! It had been filed in a vault and it took a week and __**half**__ to find it with the files as messed up as they were. That piece of human refuse scrambled them to try and hide his crimes. Lotus, please! _She begged. _We want to make this right!_

_That is not the only reason. _The Lotus said sharply.

_No._ The Reverend Mother admitted. _We... The Board keep it quiet, but... we are having problems with inbreeding. Too few fertile females for our population. Too many children by those. We need diversity. More... _She trailed off.

_You __**cannot**__ be asking... what I __**think**__ you are asking... _The Lotus sounded..stunned now.

_If... If she tells us to destroy the material, we will._ The Reverend Mother said softly. _All who know agree. We are in the __**wrong**__ here. What Maxwell D-90 did to Lis was a horror. Two days... in that... that __**torture**__ device... It wasn't built to be one. But..._

_Human have perverted all kinds of things throughout their history. _The Lotus said softly, her tone somewhere between resigned and furious. _Hardly the first time someone has done such with reproduction machinery. But... That...?_

_It is sealed, under heavy guard. No one else knows what Lis really is. _The Reverend Mother said softly. _She was fully human according to every scan. Only if one knew the mental peculiarities to look for would anyone have guessed. Who think of Tenno __**outside**__ of warframes? The energy signature is not detectable with any scanners I know of. But I felt her mind. I knew what she was the moment I did._

_I... _The Lotus sounded soft and scared now. _I can __**ask**__. But... I do not know what she will say. The probabilities are... confused._

_We can send it somewhere the Tenno can recover it easily. _The Reverend Mother offered. _Or we can destroy it. I don't __**want**__ to. We need the diversity. Our branch of the human race is... stagnating. But... We are __**not**__ the Board. We have no right to do anything without Lis' permission._

_You got that right. _The Lotus said sharply, then sighed. _I was female once myself. I... understand. The machinery did as it was programmed. But you should have told her._

_We found it __**yesterday**__, corroborated its authenticity four __**hours**__ ago. _The Reverend Mother said quietly. _I had to... get somewhere I could speak to you._ _And now? We need to make this right. If we can. If needed, __**I**__ will talk to her. Apologize myself. This...travesty soils us all._

_I will tell her. _The Lotus said quietly. _She will be angry._

_She has every __**right**__ to be angry. _The Reverend Mother said sharply._ She was __**violated**__! I would be far, far more than __**angry**__. The one who did it to her has been made into a electronics repair drone. Barely one step above a MOA. I would 'request' that you ask Tenno not to kill him if they encounter him. _The Lotus made a noise of understanding and the Reverend Mother's voice turned savage. _He doesn't __**deserve**__ the mercy of death. Not after that._

_I will tell her._

* * *

><p><strong>Elsewhere<strong>

Lis was sighing to herself. This situation was not spiraling out of control. It just felt like it.

"Slow and careful, Sara." Lis said with an inaudible sigh. Getting exasperated wouldn't help Sara's already tenuous emotional control. "Like I showed you. Like you did before. See the harmonics in your mind's eye. Alter the one for visual light."

The girl swallowed hard and focused her will carefully. The Tenno who had volunteered -he wore a black and red Oberon warframe- did not move from where Lis had told him to stand. He was not nervous. He knew what was coming. Sara however... was _scared_. Lis understood. She had never asked the guy's name. She had just tapped his shoulder to pull him out of the crowd of three _hundred_ Tenno -in warframes and not- who had volunteered as soon as they heard what Sara was undergoing. All of them understood. Not all remembered their training, not completely. Cryonesia had taken its toll on every Tenno. But _all_ knew what they were. What _Sara_ was. What she was facing with gritted teeth.

"Sara." Lis said quietly. "Relax. You won't hurt him. You can't. Not in here."

The room had been set up specifically for Sara's training. The Tenno HQ was a sprawling mass of rooms and compartments. Lis wasn't sure if it was underground, floating in space, or hidden someplace even more exotic like Avalon was. Truth be told? She didn't care. She didn't need to know where it was. The room was dampened and insulated to a fare the well. They hadn't had to train young Tenno for a long, long time. But the records still existed. The Lotus still had access to them. Which was good. She nodded to the Oberon and he raised a hand. A column of blue light erupted from his hand. It went up about twenty centimeters, turned and came back down into his hand. He held it, circulating the power.

"I _will_ hurt him!" Sara protested.

"No, you _won't_." Lis sad with a sigh that she let Sara hear this time. "We have been _over_ this. Sara, change the color of the light. You can do it. It is a harmonic of the visual spectrum. You can do it. You did it with _me_."

"I know _you_." Sara protested, her eyes on the column of blue light. "And I hurt you." Shame sang in her voice but she jerked a little as Lis growled softly. Times like this she had a much better understanding of Leanna, her old teacher, than she had _ever_ wanted to have. It was very frustrating.

"Sara." Lis said firmly. "You hurt _yourself_ through me. It was your _subconscious_. _Not_ your conscious mind. I am protected now. _He_ is protected. Change the color. No more. One wavelength. Control that wavelength. Control is the _single_ most important thing we Tenno learn. Whether we are Archivists, Healers, Elders, Technicians, Warriors or _any_ other path... _All_ need control at the base level to do _anything_ else. You have chosen to follow the path of the Technician. We are looking for a suitable teacher for that path." Sara tensed and Lis shook her head. "No, I am not leaving." She chided the girl gently and Sara had to smile at that. "Sara, I am a Warrior, not a Tech. The paths are different. You _will_ need specialized instruction."

"As long as it is not _Lou_." Sara said with a frown and Lis had to fight to keep from chuckling. The Oberon _did_ chuckle. Lou was a bit much. "Don't know if I could handle the conspiracy theories on top of everything else." She took a deep, calming breath and focused on the column of blue energy.

"I wouldn't do that to you, Sara." Lis said with a snort. "I may be evil, I am not _that_ evil." Her dry wit startled a chuckle from Sara and then... it happened. The energy changed color. From blue to red. Sara froze and the Oberon inclined his head to her.

"I..." Sara stared at the energy, entranced. It changed again, from red to yellow and then to green and then a deep purple. "This... This is amazing."

"Yes it is." Lis said with a fond smile for her student. "Congratulations, Sara. You have taken your first knowing step into a far larger world." Sara stared at the energy, entranced and Lis shook her head. She made a curt gesture at the Oberon who nodded and the energy vanished. "Sara, be very careful. Visible light is rarely dangerous, but it _can_ be. It can cause seizures in unprepared beings. Or it can be focused."

"A laser... I know. I did that..." Sara sounded stunned. "By altering one wavelength." Both Lis and the Oberon nodded. "Oh my god..." She shook herself. She was shivering a bit and Lis took her hand, her warframe sensors checking the girl's vitals automatically.

"You will learn how to do that more efficiently and far more than that, Sara." Lis promised. "But for now, you need rest and food. You did it." She encouraged the girl. "_You_ did it." She jerked her head to the Oberon who bowed to both female Tenno and left the room. "Well done, Sara."

"I have a long way to go." Sara said with a sigh that was completely fake. She was exuberant. "I thought it would be hard." She said a bit sheepishly.

"Do you _really_ think I would make you lift a mountain on your first day, Sara?" Lis asked as she led the girl towards the door.

"No." Sara admitted. "I was just... afraid of what I might do." Her hand glowed for a moment and she stared at it, a furrow of concentration appearing on her youthful features. The glow faded. "This... is odd."

"Well..." Lis put just the right tone of nonchalance in her voice. "... _you_ are odd. So it just figures your first manifestation would be too."

"Who are you calling odd?" Sara demanded in a joking voice that faded a little. "I... Thank you." She said a bit meekly. "I know I am... a handful."

"Sara." Lis paused and took hold of the girl's shoulders, spinning her so she stared the Nyx Prime warframe in the faceplate. "I don't have to worry about seeing you shot, blown to pieces, poisoned, frozen, burnt, stabbed..." She shook her head as she pulled the now shivering girl into a loose embrace. "If Iriana's treatment works... I won't have to watch you _die_..." She gave Sara a hug. "Anything else is just a bonus."

"I love you, Lis." Sara said, hugging the warframe tight. Lis managed to control the hiss of discomfort, but Sara was an observant girl and immediately released her. "Lis... You... I..."

"Sara." Lis chided her gently. "Yes it hurts. No, I won't let them put me in an ICU pod for six _months_ or so while you _need_ me. Maybe when you _don't_ anymore. After you have been started on your apprenticeship."

"Lis..." Sara's lip was quivering. "Please. I know you are hurting. Mom is helping. I am getting better. I... I want _you_ to get better."

"Sara." Lis said gently. They had this argument regularly and had since the docs had -reluctantly- let Lis off the table on which she had woken. "You need instruction. You need protection. I am not going into the field. I am not going to run around and get blown up myself again. Serene and the others..." She sighed inaudibly. She wouldn't mention _who_ those others were, but the Royal Guard were just as persistent in trying to get her to change her mind as Sara and Serene were. "...are getting annoyed with me. But the simple fact is... you _still need_ _me_."

"I don't deserve you." Sara said sadly. "I never did."

"Deserve has nothing to do with it, Sara." Lis retorted as she had every time Sara said that same thing. She had never expected to love Sara. But she did. Then she sighed. "If it _did_... That whole mess yesterday wouldn't have happened."

Sara winced and nodded. Neither wanted to remember what had happened when they had found a small human girl crying alone in a disused hallway. A small _blind_ human girl. It had been... rough. Both had stepped back when older and more experienced Tenno had arrived. But both knew the repercussions of the Tenno known as Malachi's treatment of a small clan of Tenno would be slow to fade. Karl in particular had a _long_ memory. Everyone who met her liked Peri and for the scum to do what he had... _At least he didn't hurt the waif._ Lis though with a shudder. _If he had, there would have been blood on the walls._

"I saw Elder Raven moving towards the Admin section earlier." Sara said with a smile. "I bet she was going to look at legal precedents." Lis chuckled darkly. The maimed Tenno might not like field work anymore, but she was just as deadly with her political acumen, biting wit and legal expertise as she had been with her _claws_ in her Valcyr warframe. Sara matched the Nyx Prime's chuckle with her own. "Yeah." Then her stomach rumbled. "Oh come _on!_" Sara snapped at her belly. "This is getting _old_!"

"Come on, Sara." Lis said with a snicker. "You need to eat and then rest. Do you want to sleep here or at the Tower?"

"I..." Sara slumped a bit. "I should socialize. I know. But I prefer the Tower. I know it and... it feels more like home. More than... the other does." She said with an apologetic glance at Lis who nodded.

"Right now, comfort is more important than socializing." Lis said with a smile that carried right through her faceplate. "We will continue your training, but..." She paused as a form hurried up from a cross corridor. "Oh, Elder Raven." She said, bowing. Sara hastily did likewise.

The female Elder wore formal robes most of the time. Not so much for the formality. To hide the horrific scars that covered every inch of her body. The veil she wore, likewise for her face. She could _see_ just fine. But... the visage made people... nervous. Sad. She was a good woman, a good Tenno.

"Lis, Sara." The Elder's voice was... odd. Calm, but... was she angry or crying? Or _both_? "You need to come with me, back to the Tower."

"Elder?" Sara asked her hand going to her mouth. "Is it...? Has something happened to my mom? Moms?" She corrected herself absently. Having Amelia and Serene as parents was bad enough, but Iriana had adopted Sara too, so it made the family arrangements...a bit complex. No one minded.

"No, Sara." Raven said gently, obviously forcing herself to calm. "Your moms are fine. But... You and Lis need to come with me. Now." Lis did not argue. She started off as the Elder did, Sara hurrying to catch up. "I am sorry for worrying you. But... This is..." She shook her head. "This is _not_ going to be fun. For _any_ of us."

Lis felt something in her still as Raven led the way to the closest portal chamber which was...cleared. Something was very wrong. There were always guards at the portal chamber. The Elder waved to the platform and Lis stepped up. Sara followed with only a minor hesitation. Raven started working the controls.

"At least I haven't eaten anything yet." Sara quipped a bit weakly. "I hate these." She said in an undertone. Lis took her hand a gave it a squeeze.

"No one I know _likes_ them, Sara." Lis said with a snort. "Useful, but very uncomfortable." She gave Sara's hand another squeeze and released it as the Elder stepped to the platform which had started to glow.

Then they were elsewhere. Lis checked Sara automatically. Sara's face was more than little green, but she was upright. But then...

The Portal chamber was _packed_! And... only with females! Serene stood to one side, her face a mask. Amelia and Kori stood nearby, the human doctor's face a mask, but the Kubrow's anxious. Alicia from Karl's clan stood by Karen, also from that clan. Both wore warframes and looked as if they had been... Lis went totally still as _Michelle_ stepped forward, her hands reaching for Sara.

"Sara?" The Princess of Avalon said quietly as Lis suddenly felt faint. What was she doing out of Avalon? A Mag Prime stood just behind her so she wasn't unprotected with Petra around, but still... "How did it go?"

"Ah... Michelle?" Sara asked, as confused sounding as Lis felt. "I... I changed the color." All of the visible faces smiled.

"Good." Michelle said with a nod. "Amelia has a meal and a bed for you. She wants to talk. She has missed you."

"What are you..." Sara said slowly as Amelia stepped forward her arms out to embrace Sara. "Wait..." She paused, staring from Michelle to Li, to the others and back. "No! Whatever you have to say I can hear! Lis! What is wrong with Lis?"

"Sara..." Michelle had tears falling now. "Nothing is wrong with Lis. Nothing. But... you do not want to hear what we will have to tell her. You do _not_." The Princess said savagely. "There is _nothing_ you can do about it and if you get stressed, _she_ will get stressed. Stressed _worse_. We are here... for _her._" At that, Lis felt faint. All of this... _All_ of her and Sara's female friends? Here? For _her_? Now?

"Sara. Go." Lis heard her voice say those words. But they came from far, far away. "Please." Sara was crying as Amelia took her in hand and led her away. The Kubrow gave an encouraging whine to the scared little girl before following. "Tell me."

"Not us." Michelle said sadly as she stepped back. Iriana stepped forward, her hand going to the Nyx's shoulders. Was that a stunner in her hand? Lis did not move. She would not resist. Michelle swallowed hard. "You may need it. _I_ did when they told _me_."

"What?" Lis asked, not moving at all as Iriana took hold of her, but did not stun her. Then...

_Tenno Lis..._ The voice of the Lotus was... wary. _You will not want to hear this._ _But you must. While you were a prisoner..._

Lis went stock still as she listened. She felt her world come crumbling down as the Lotus explained. Then she heard a scream. A terrified female scream of rage and pain and frustration and fear and... _Her_ voice.

As the stunner flared, she feared nothing would be the same. But... gentle wings held her as she fell into sleep. Comforting wings.


	2. Chapter 2

**Can't or won't**

Lis was aware of scrutiny when she woke. She was still in her warframe. The pain was muted but there. But her helmet... She hissed as she realized her helmet was gone!

"We needed access. Just in case. To keep you from choking or...whatever." A soft, sad voice came from the side and Lis turned her head to see Iriana sitting nearby, the healer's face bleak. "Lis, we won't remove you from your warframe." Iriana said with a sigh as Lis went still. "We want to, but... not without your consent. After everything else? No one dares do anything without your consent."

"I... don't fully understand." Lis said, marveling that her voice sounded so calm. She was certainly not. "They were kind to me."

"They are _Corpus_, Lis." Iriana said sharply. "Lying is what they _do!_"

"They didn't _need_ to be kind, Iriana." Lis said without heat. "You of _all_ people know what they _could_ have done. They _comforted_ me. _Sat_ with me. _Helped_ me when I had nightmares. When I was _confused_, or _sick_ or _scared_. One even _sang_ to me!" She shook her head. "_Tell_ me Karl is not going to launch an assault."

"I..." Iriana swallowed hard and Lis shook her head slowly. Lis tried to sit up and couldn't. "Lis, don't struggle." Lis stared down at herself and saw the tell tale signs of energy restraints around her wrists and ankles. Iriana looked sad. "You were thrashing. You clipped Amelia good."

"How bad did I hurt her?" Lis was trying not to beg.

"You knocked her down, no more." Iriana said heavily. "You were unconscious. Not in control. No blames you. But...we had to be careful."

"I _am_ very angry." Lis agreed. "But with the _one_ who hurt me, _not_ with the Corpus personnel who _helped_ me." She said firmly. "Call Karl. Now." Iriana jerked and Lis sighed. "He is right outside, isn't he?" That would be just like him.

"He feels responsible, Lis." Iriana said softly.

"So do I." Lis agreed. "But it is neither his responsibility nor mine. Get him in here. Sara?"

"Sleeping." Iriana tapped some keys on a remote control. "You have been out for five hours. We...felt it best to let her sleep. She... hasn't recovered yet."

"She pushes herself too hard." Lis said with a sigh. The door hissed open and a huge white form stepped in. "Karl. _Do not_ attack the Corpus mining facility I was at." Lis said without preamble. "They didn't do it to me."

"Lis." Karl's voice was calm and sure. "They have something they must not keep."

"If they _wanted_ to keep it, would they have _told_ the Lotus they _had_ it?" Lis argued calmly. "Karl... I was human. Not born infected. What can they _learn_ from my DNA?" She asked Iriana who frowned. "Energy patterns degrade quickly. What can they learn from my DNA?" She demanded of the healer.

"That is the beside the-" Karl started only to freeze as Lis nearly exploded.

"That is _entirely_ the point!" Lis snapped. "_They_. _Were_. _Kind_. _To_. _Me_." She said, heavily enunciating each word. "They didn't _have_ to be. They could have done everything with robotics. They didn't. I can bet Vina's and Mercedes J-54's reaction on discovering this... this _horror_ matches ours." She took a deep, calming breath. "Am I _irrational_, Healer?"

"From the readings? Aside from not letting us _heal_ you?" Iriana said sourly. "No. Very emotional, yes. Irrational? No."

"I have a duty to Sara." Lis said firmly. "A _duty_ and an _obligation_. She and Serene didn't _have_ to be nice to me. They _were_. The Corpus Executive, her assistant and the specialist they called in didn't _have_ to be kind to me. _They_ were." She shook her head. "So... you will charge in and slaughter a bunch of Corpus.. to recover _Human DNA_ that _cannot_ tell the Corpus _anything_ they do not _already_ _know_." She shook her head. "Fine. I can't stop you."

"Actually." Karl was shaking his head. "You just did." Lis went still and Karl nodded. "I am angry. This... kind of thing makes people angry. _Sane_ people anyway." He clarified.

"I am angry too, Karl." Lis said with a sigh. "But the fact remains... Vina was kind to me when she didn't _have_ to be. It cost her money out of _her own pocket_ to help me. She did it. Maybe there was some kind of odd, dedicated plot. Maybe there was some kind of long laid plan. I don't know. I didn't see any sign of it." She bowed her head a little. "I saw a woman who messed up. Whose subordinate hurt me and was punished for it. Whose subordinate cost her superiors a great deal and _paid_ for it. The _only_ one I am really angry with is the man who hurt me. If I _ever_ meet _him_ again..." She shrugged as she trailed off.

"No one blames you for that, Lis." Karl said quietly. "Okay. No assault. But... Lis." He said slowly. "I need to know. Why?"

"Why what?" Lis asked slowly, but she knew what was coming.

"Why won't you let the healers help you?" Karl said in a reasonable voice. "With so much talent in various places, it won't take six months." His tone was calm, but... "Why prolong your agony?"

"I ask myself that regularly." Lis said quietly. "But you of all people will understand. I took up the mantle of Sara's protector and teacher. I gave my word, to her and Serene. I owe her and Serene. This is..." She broke off as Karl inhaled sharply.

"A debt of honor." Karl sounded as if he wanted to cry suddenly, but then it faded and he just nodded. "I understand. I will talk to Sara."

"Karl!" Iriana protested, but the Rhino just shook his head again.

"Iriana, Lis made her choice." Karl said quietly. "She is just as stubborn as any other Tenno I have ever met. Maybe not _Nikis_..." He mused and both Lis and Iriana winced as one. He chuckled without humor. "No, not Nikis. But any other _besides_ Nikis." Lis startled herself with a chuckle of her own and Karl nodded to her. "I will explain to Sara. She respects me. And I will try to dissuade her from her latest crazy scheme." He said with an exaggerated wince.

"Do I want to know?" Lis asked, only half joking. Sara was endlessly inventive at times and Lis' continued stubbornness was beginning to strain the girl.

"She asked the Tower systems what would be involved in putting herself in cryo for six months while you heal." Iriana said dryly. Lis froze and Iriana nodded. "No. We won't allow it. Do you have _any_ idea what Serene would do?"

"Yeah, actually I do." Lis said with a wince. It... wouldn't be pretty. Even out of a warframe, Serene threw an impressive tantrum when she wanted. The reclining Nyx nodded to Karl. "Thank you, Karl. When you are done with Sara, send her to me. I will try to keep her from doing anything too crazy." The Rhino nodded and left the room. The healer sat back in her chair, her face in her hands. "Iriana... I am sorry." Lis said softly. "But I have to do this. At least until Sara finds a trainer, works out an apprenticeship program with someone. Then... I will explore options. I do not like this pain. But I _can_ handle it."

"This flies against everything I believe in, Lis." Iriana said weakly. "I can understand your feelings for the ones who helped you. I can even..." She raised warding hands as Lis started to protest. "...see that it isn't some kind of 'nurse-patient' relationship thing. You really believe they were kind just to be kind."

"I think they realized that a terrible thing had been done." Lis said quietly. "But Iriana... I talked to people at the Orphanage I was at first. What do you think _most_ Corpus executives would have done if they found a brain dead woman being tortured?"

"Disposed of the evidence." The Healer said without hesitation. Lis nodded.

"That was what I expected them to do." Lis said quietly. "They _didn't_. I wouldn't consider them 'good people' by our standards... They wouldn't have helped me if they had found me on a street corner somewhere." She mused. "But by _theirs_? Vina paid out of her own pocket to recoup company losses and to help me, Iriana. She _handed_ me a loaded Orokin pistol that had been in her family for generations. She was _horrified_ when they found me. I remember... some..." Iriana tensed and Lis shook her head. "I was strapped down and couldn't see anything. Couldn't feel much of anything. But I _could_ hear her. As angry as you and the others are? She was _angrier_. The scum who hurt me betrayed _her_ to do it and used _her_ resources to do it. She felt _personally_ responsible."

"I didn't think Corpus executives could feel that way." Iriana said slowly. "I thought they were brainwashed to only serve the Company. First, last and only."

"Oh, she _was_ serving the company." Lis hastened to explain. "They all were. But on a cold pragmatic level, her reaction makes perfect sense. Her resources were used to hurt the company's morale and profits. Now? Her employees are _totally_ loyal to her in a way that puts shame to any brainwashing. You cannot _buy_ that kind of loyalty. You cannot brainwash people into that kind of loyalty no matter how hard you try. It has to be _earned_. And she _did_ earn it. From her employees and from _me_." Lis shook her head ."I don't want to kill Vina or any of her people. I want to help them. And on that note..."

"Lis..." Iriana growled.

"Iriana." Lis said quietly. "Did you hear the rest?"

"Lis, you cannot..." Iriana snapped, but paused as Lis shook her head.

"Iriana." Lis said quietly. "You bore a new life into the world. A wonderful young being called Mishka. I am a Warrior. I am trained for one purpose and one purpose only. Not to heal. Not to mend, or repair, or to build..." Iriana was shaking her head and Lis sighed. "Iriana, I am a weapon. Trained to kill. No more, no less."

"You are more than that." Iriana protested.

"Leanna seemed to think I would make a good teacher." Lis said with a sigh. "After trying with Sara though... I don't know. Do I have the patience for it?" She asked the ceiling above her. "Or will I go crazy trying? Wind up hurting kids as Leanna often did?"

"Everyone who has seen you instructing Sara is impressed, Lis." Iriana said quietly. "She is _so_ smart, and you keep her on her toes. That is _hard_ to do. I speak from experience." She said with a tiny grin that faded. "You are a _good_ teacher, Lis. You have had a hell of a shock and you are rebounding. But you need to give _yourself_ time too. We will tend Sara, keep her occupied. For now, rest. Recover. Meditate." She rose and stepped to the bed. She touched the restraint bands and they fell off into her hands. "Do you want help to sleep?"

"No." Lis said as she stretched a little. "I need to meditate anyway. The last few days... Peri." She sighed and Iriana nodded.

"I really thought Karl or Serene were going to tear that scum apart." Iriana said with a wince. "As angry as I was? Serene _scared_ me."

"Me too." Lis admitted as she sat on the bed in seiza. "Thank you for your care, healer. Just... if I start screaming..." She warned.

"We know." Iriana said with a frown. "Four drones already though, Lis. You will need therapy some time. Just... not yet. You are not ready."

"I appreciate the offer." Lis said with a tiny nod. "I will take you up on it. I just..." She sighed and shook herself. "As for healing? I _will_. But not until Sara is taken care of."

"I will hold you to that, Tenno." Iriana said severely and then she was gone. Lis smiled and started to meditate, but paused as a chime sounded.

"Yes?" Lis said quietly as she sat on the edge of the bed.

-Tenno Lis.- Lis went still as the Tower systems spoke to her. -You have a visitor. Are you available?-

"Who?" Lis asked, confused.

-Gunnery Sergeant Miguel Smith wishes to speak with you.- Lis went totally still at that, her heart pounding. -If this is a bad time, Tenno Lis, he can come back.-

"No." Lis said slowly as she slid off the bed and onto the floor, her knees automatically folding under her as she knelt. "I... will see him." The door hissed open and a old human male stepped in, his face unreadable. He wore an archaic looking camouflage uniform. "Sergeant." Lis said, inclining her head.

"I am not one for fancy speeches." The old Marine said softly. "So I will just say it. Thank you."

"_Thank_...!" Lis fought to keep herself on the floor. It helped, to remain in seiza as her emotions took a nosedive. "Sergeant, in your place, I would draw a firearm and put a _bullet_ through me!"

"Why?" Miguel asked softly.

"I..." Lis fought herself for a moment until she could answer calmly. "I am the reason Nicholas..." Even now a shiver of hate flew through Lis at the sound of her old clan leader's name. "..._enslaved_ you. Took volition from you. _Hurt_ you. I..." Her eyes burned but she just bowed her head.

"Ma'am." Miguel's voice was gentle now. "You saved my life. Lilly told me what you said to the others. Took a while. She is a bit stubborn, that Tenno."

"I... I tried..." Lis said sadly. "I tried to sedate. Just... biochemistry, you know? Not hard." She slumped. "Every time I cut a hole and threw sedatives in, one of the others tossed in a _grenade!_" Hate sang in her voice now. "Luc killed your tank just as I got on it. I cut your hatch open, but you were convulsing. I... I tried..."

"Ma'am." Miguel said quietly as he stepped close. "It ain't your fault. What happened. It ain't my fault. It was Nicholas' fault and he has paid for what he did."

"Is." Lis said fiercely. Miguel looked at her and she smiled. It was not a nice smile. "_Is_ paying for what he did. You have seen shades." It wasn't a question. "Nicholas' shade is suffering for eternity. Not enough." She snapped. "Even Mag's bloodthirst isn't _enough_."

"Ma'am."Miguel said as he knelt down in front of her. "Let go of the hate. Let go of this. You were misled. But it is past. We cannot change the past. All we can do is go on."

"You were just doing your job." Lis felt a tear fall, then another. "And I... I helped..."

"Yeah." Miguel said quietly. "You know... Maybe I should let you talk to Charlotte." Lis looked at him and he smiled a bit crookedly. "Maybe you two can _beat_ some sense into each other. You blame _your_self for what your clan leader did. She blames _her_self for not obliterating Marlena instead of leaving that idiot to die. For not knowing what Marlena would become when the Enemy took her. For all the lives lost to the Enemy." He shook his head. "Boneheads. Both of you. If you were a Marine, I _would_ drop you for pushups."

"If I were a Marine... I... wouldn't... I... wouldn't..." To her horror, Lis started to sob and then she couldn't stop. "I am sorry." She begged as an arm slowly and carefully circled her and held her. "I am sorry."

"So am I." Miguel said as he held her. "But you put my mind to rest, girl." Lis looked at him through streaming eyes and he nodded. "Wondered if I ran."

"No way in hell we could have made you run, Sergeant. The scum I served tried. They failed." Lis said weakly as he scrubbed her face with her warframe gauntlet, trying to stem her tears. It did nothing but spread them around. Tears slid off bio armor just as bullets did. "Dang..." She sighed.

"Here." Miguel said as he produced a white piece of cloth. Lis took it gratefully to wipe her face. She held it back to him and he shook his head. "Keep it. You will need it."

"Been...a bit rough." Lis admitted.

"A 'bit'?" Miguel asked with a snort. "Sheesh. And I thought only _Marines_ could be such masters of understatement." A laugh escaped Lis and she shook her head. "You saved my life, Ma'am. It was a bad day. For everyone."

"Yeah." Lis agreed. "But for what it is worth, Sergeant? I _never_ want to fight your people again. You may only be human, but it doesn't matter. We did not expect you to be able to mobilize so quickly or to fight so hard." She swallowed and tears fell again. "To... to fall to the last Marine... to stop us. I think the words are 'Semper Fi'?"

"Yes Ma'am." Miguel said with a smile as he rose and stepped back. "Semper Fi." He shook his head. "Lilly wanted me to convince you to let the docs work on you." Lis tensed but the old Marine chuckled. "Nope. Ain't that stupid."

"I am not... completely clueless _now_, Sergeant." Lis said as she gave her face one last scrub with the now sodden piece of cloth. She examined it. A white glove? "Once Sara is taken care of, on her way to learning with a master of the craft... I _will_ seek healing. Tell Lilly that. Maybe she will stop pestering you."

"I doubt it." Miguel said with a snort. "A bit tenacious, that Tenno."

"Yeah." Lis rose and then bowed formally to the Marine. He stared at her, flabbergasted. "One survivor to another, Sergeant. I am glad you made it. And I am sorry Nicholas hurt you the way he did. I tried to get him to leave you, but he was so mad when you shot him."

"I _hit_ him?" Miguel asked, his eyes wide.

"Blew one of the hoops right off his helmet." Lis said with a smirk. "You should have _heard_ him curse."

"Wish I _had_." Miguel said with a smirk of his own. Then it faded and he gave her a salute worthy of a parade ground. "Take care, Tenno." Lilly rose from her bow and he dropped his salute.

"You too, marine." Lis said as she knelt back into seiza. But her heart was lighter than it had been for some time as he nodded to her and left the room.

Maybe just maybe... She could forgive herself. Maybe she could... move on.


	3. Chapter 3

**Options**

Lis sighed as she sank into her meditation. That had been... rough. But she did feel better. Of all the things she might have expected, the Gunny _thanking_ her... She never would have expected that. She relaxed fully for the first time in a while.

Lis jerked. She was...

_Easy, Lis._ The voice was familiar. Janet? _I need to talk to you. If you don't mind..._ The Oracle said quietly.

_Sure..._ Lis said and then gave a squeak as she was suddenly falling, but only a half a meter or so onto a couch. She stared around wildly but then relaxed.

The room was small but comfortable. A heater against one wall gave off ample amounts of warmth without being too overpowering. Pictures hung on several walls. And a rug sat on the floor. The couch was the only furniture. But it was comfortable. Lis wore her warframe, but no helmet here either.

"Is there a reason we have to have this conversation in a virtual world?" Lis asked sourly as she sat back.

"I thought you might feel a bit more at ease here." Janet's voice preceded the woman into being, but... Lis' eyes went huge as she saw the woman's visible body _covered_ with burn dressings. Her head in particular was covered completely, only her face was visible and it showed healing burns as well. "I am okay, Lis." Janet said quietly as Lis gasped.

"You don't _look_ okay." Lis said sharply. Then she sighed. "I am sorry. Bad day."

"Bad _month_." Janet corrected Lis gently as she sat beside the Tenno and held out her hand. "I won't break, Lis."

"You helped me." Lis said as she took the wrapped hand carefully and held it gently. She brought it to her mouth and kissed it. "You told me to remember Sara. I did."

"Yes, you did." Janet agreed, cupping Lis' cheek with her wrapped hand. "There is lot I can't tell you." She said sadly.

"Nothing new there." Lis said with a sigh. "So... why talk at all?"

"I was a mother." Janet said calmly. "You are contemplating it." Lis looked at her and Janet sighed. "So much I can't say, but this I _can_. It is a lot of work. It is the deepest commitment a person, be they human or Tenno, can make."

"I know." Lis tried to keep in a sigh and managed, mostly. "I saw Serene's struggles firsthand. But..." Her face split in a tender smile. "Rocky is worth it." Serene's son was a lot of work, but a lot of joy too.

"No argument there." Janet said with a matching smile. But then it faded. "Lis..."

"I know, Janet." Lis looked at the floor. "Vina and Mercedes J-54 and Harriet did not hide anything from me. Well, _except_ for what the machinery did to save my life and I understand _why_ they hid that from me. I was very fragile. I know I can't bear naturally. The damage was too much."

"I am not here to reopen old wounds, Lis." Janet said softly, her hand coming down to take Lis'. "They saved your life. I am biased, but I think that is a good thing." Lis smiled forlornly at her and Janet gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "All I can really say is this: be very careful, Lis. Executive Vina and Mercedes J-54 and even Sister Harriet are not representative of the Corpus as a whole."

"They are Clergy, aren't they?" Lis asked softly. Janet did not respond and Lis sighed. "Never mind. Should know better than to ask."

"Yeah you should." Janet said with a smile. "You made some very odd friends, but... If you ever meet them again... it won't end well." Lis went still, and then she nodded slowly. Janet could not come right out and _say_ things. She could allude to them. "But you were contemplating the second point."

"I was." Lis agreed. "If humanity does stagnate... If the Corpus _do_ inbreed themselves too far..." She shook her head. "They will get desperate."

"And desperate people take foolish risks, even when they are not religious fanatics." Janet frowned lightly. "I cannot advise you. I am forbidden such. All I can do... is offer my shoulder as you offered yours to Serene. She offered hers to me. Kindness will win out, but it has a long and hard road to follow, Lis."

"I..." Lis swallowed hard, but the kindness Janet was projecting now as too much. She found herself crying softly as Janet held her gently. "Don't let me hurt you."

"This is virtual, Lis." Janet reassured her. "My body is a mess. This..." She waved her had that wasn't stroking Janet's arm at her own body. "...is a representation of my current state. Eventually, they will let me out of the pool I am floating in." She snorted sourly. "Can't be soon enough. Being fed through a tube sucks too."

"Can... can you say what happened?" Lis asked.

"I am not Tenno." Janet said soberly. "You all are trained to handle large amounts of energy flowing through your body. I _wasn't_. I held it too long and nearly fried Nikis when he helped me use what I held." She chuckled a bit ruefully. "'None so blind as those who see', huh? All that time I was worried about _Nikis'_ madness and my _own_ nearly killed me."

"Are you okay?" Lis asked, concern rising. But Janet smiled and it faded back.

"For some connotations of the word 'okay', yes." Janet said dryly. "Others? No. I was hurt very badly but I have people who are helping me. Eventually, once I have healed a bit more and learned a bit more about my ability, I will be able to do a bit more than enter people's meditations and talk. But it will take a while." She sighed. "Probably a _long_ while. I am... only human after all."

"I am glad you survived." Lis said with a smile as she gave Janet a gentle squeeze. "Sara and Serene both liked you."

"Well, I am glad you kept the wings from taking total control." Janet said with a shiver that Lis matched. "I didn't know that girl was still in there. In hindsight, it was understandable. But at the time?" She shrugged. "Let go of your doubts, Lis. You are a good teacher. Your instincts are good. Follow them."

"You know far too much about me for my own peace of mind." Lis said with a sour smile. "Crazy Oracle."

"Well, yeah." Janet replied with a snort. "Anyone who does this job is nuts. Anyone who _wants_ it? They should be immediately certified as criminally insane and locked away for their own good." Lis sputtered a laugh. "You think I _joke_?" Janet asked and Lis froze. "People have wanted these powers. Hell, that is what _Rasputin_ wanted."

"You are _not_ Rasputin, Janet." Lis said firmly.

"No." Janet agreed. "But I can understand the draw. The need to know. Even when you know it will cause far more problems than it solves, you want to know. You burn to. It... never ends well."

"Well, I _don't_ want to know." Lis said with a snap. "I have enough problems. Pushy healers, a crazy girl wanting to go into cryo..." She shook her head. "And now? An _Oracle_ in my meditations." Janet snickered at her tone and nodded.

"Once Sara is taken care of, and _you_ have healed..." Janet said slowly. "I may... ask to talk to you again. Nothing formal. Nothing pushed. Just talk. I will need help in what I am supposed to do. Human and Tenno help _both_."

"And just _what_ is it you are supposed to do?" Lis asked as the world started to fade around her.

"Bring back hope to the world we live in." Janet said quietly. Lis stared at the now transparent Oracle and Janet scoffed. "Yeah, I _know_." She said sourly. "No _pressure_, huh?"

Lis was laughing as she woke from her meditation, renewed and refreshed. Just a waft of a gentle touch had her sighing as it vanished.

* * *

><p><strong>Mars<strong>

'Enemy armor!'

The waved warning came from the point and the tiny unit of special operations warriors froze in place. The four team mates waited, hoping and praying that their camouflage and sensor baffling worked. If it didn't? Well, it would be _quick_. The rumbling of tracks sounded in the distance. Coming closer. But it was the many squad of infantry out prowling the Martian hills that were the real danger. More than once, a Grineer had literally tripped over a member of the squad, but each time, the clone had not noticed anything, cursing rocks on the Martian soil for the footing. But there was a problem.

_**Lots**__ of Grineer..._

Commander Horatius, Corpus Special Forces, was out of his depth. He hated the feeling. He was a raider. A predator. Highly trained, highly motivated and with the best equipment that the Corpus could offer, he and his team were _the_ apex predators in almost any normal situation. This was not -by anyone's estimation- a _normal_ situation.

Most of the time, if a concentration of Grineer were located, he would call for fire support or simply ghost out of the area. But this time, the Grineer controlled the space around Mars. With no handy fleet in the orbital space, his fire support options were limited to what his team could carry with them. And since he really, really did _not_ want to advertise their presence when he was for all intents and purposes infiltrating a major Grineer stronghold...

His orders made sense. To a point. He had to find out who was attacking the Grineer on Mars. Make contact if he could. At the very _least_ find out _who_ was making such a mess. For several weeks, Grineer patrols had simply vanished. A firebase had stopped reporting and then it's heaviest artillery had inexplicably turned on several other Grineer facilities. The Grineer had responded in their usual fashion, flooding the area with troops. But... they found nothing. Then another facility, an ammo dump, had been sabotaged. It hadn't been a Tenno assault. The _only _clone survivor had spoken of _human_ ghosts coming from nowhere before his commanders had summarily executed him for cowardice. It had taken Horatius' team two _days_ of careful slicing to get into the Grineer networks to recover that report.

Grineer HQ was blaming Tenno and...ordinarily, Horatius would have said the same. But... Every Grineer knew what Tenno _were_. Even the lowest no rank Lancer would recognize a Tenno. And there was something... familiar about that report. The whole 'ghost' thing. That was what Corpus Special Forces _were_. They were never _there_. If they were seen, that was always counted as a failed mission even if it was a success in other ways. Their job was _not_ to be seen.

Whoever was attacking the Grineer on Mars though... This wasn't -quite- Special Forces. They were good, no question. They had left _way_ too many dead clones in their wake to be amateurs getting lucky. The operations were planned. Well thought out and executed with precision. Military precision. Whoever these people were... They acted military. Which was good. And bad. And _ugly_.

It was good in that Horatius had some idea of what they might do and how. It was what _he_ was trained to do. Modern military forces -who did not have endless supplies of clones anyway- acted in certain ways. Recon the area. Gather intelligence. Plan. Then execute the operation and adapt the plan as the situation evolved. No plan ever survived contact with the enemy. That was one reasons they were called 'the enemy'. They had plans of their own and they often confounded even the best laid plans even when everything went _right_. Which was rare in Horatius' experience.

The bad? These people, whoever they were, knew what they were doing. They were professionals. The Grineer might ape the mannerisms or _act_ professional on occasion, but they generally were bullies in armor. Not professional soldiers. They were big, strong and loud. Or as one of Horatius' contemporaries had put it 'Big, strong and _stupid_'. Their idea of subtle was a rifle butt to the jaw. The very _idea_ of sneaking anywhere was anathema. But these unknowns... They knew stealth. They knew how to play the game. And they knew the Grineer's biggest weakness. Arrogance. They were playing the clones like some kind of ancient musical instrument.

There was another problem. The ugly one. Horatius had been ordered to make contact. In the middle of a large scale Grineer deployment. Make contact with people who had weapons they knew how to _use_, knew how to _sneak_ and had a _distressing_ habit of shooting first and _accurately_.

Good thing he never liked easy jobs.

Right now, though. He had a problem. He hadn't wanted to move with so many Grineer in the area. If his tiny team was spotted, they would be overwhelmed in moments. They would fight, no question, but five Corpus Special Forces in the open against at least two hundred Grineer? Not a chance even without the rumbling in the distance. There was probably more than one of the misshapen lumbering things and...

_What the-?_

Only years of harsh training and _decades_ of combat experience had Horatius stay in place as the dusky Martian sky was suddenly split by a _large_ beam of energy.

_That... That looked like... Plasma? _

A loud 'crack' sounded and then an explosion was heard not too far away at all. Horatius went still as a turret pinwheeled away across the landscape. The _turret_ of a Grineer _tank_! No Corpus plasma gun was that large or powerful outside of _spacecraft_! They had no ground assault vehicles! They had never needed them! MOAs served the rank and file well enough. _All_ of the Grineer were turning towards where the _huge _plasma bolt had come from, but Horatius could not see anything. Whatever was firing was behind a lip of terrain from him. Another bolt split the sky and another stupendous crack sounded. Another explosion came from slightly further away. The Grinner were running now, seeking cover. Seeking to advance towards whoever was killing their armor with such ease. _Running_ forward with no thought of...

_Uh oh... _Horatius hugged the ground as explosions started. Smaller, but no less lethal. The screams of injured clones rang from all around and he inched his head up to stare as the hill above him came alive with fire. Fire that seemed to be coming from... holes? It was as if they had... He inhaled sharply as he realized. Foxholes. They were in _foxholes!_ Military history was pretty much mandatory reading for any Special Forces operative. You never knew, after all, if some esoteric bit of information would be useful. Whoever these were, they _were_ military! The Grineer had never _had_ to entrench a position. They just swamped their enemies with bodies. But _this_...

His trained eyes spun around, careful to keep his head still. The Grineer had walked _right_ into an ambush. A perfectly laid, perfectly positioned and perfectly _executed_ ambush. There couldn't have been over fifty of the people firing from the hillside, but they had high ground and heavy cover. Add to that... their accuracy was _phenomenal_. Clone after clone fell to aimed fire. And... his HUD blinked fir his attention and he nodded a little. Jammers. Short range, but high power jammers. The Grineer had no chance with no ability to call for fire support or reinforc-...

Something roared from far off and he looked up and froze. Something primal in him curled up as two dark green and orange forms came hurtling into view. Grineer spacecraft! Making a strafing run! He gulped as ordnance hit and explosions swept towards him. All he could do was make like a piece of dirt and pray. Then... another of the titanic plasma bolts blew one of the Grineer fighters right out of the sky and the other clawed away, seeking altitude and escape. Horatius went totally still as a fiery lance arced up from the hillside. A _missile_? Who the _hell_ had hand-held surface to air _missiles_?

The Grineer fighter tried to evade, but was too low and too slow. The missile caught the fleeing ship easily and... detonated in a bright blue flash. EMP? Had to be. The Grineer fighter seemed to stagger in midair and then the _impossible_ plasma cannon fired _again_ and the Grineer ship simply _evaporated_.

"Boss..." The soft, weak voice had Horatius freezing. His team! He spun in place to see...

"No..." Horatius begged as he slid into the _crater_ where most of his team _had_ been. The firing tapered off as the remaining Grineer stood their ground in the middle of the kill zone and died as a result. Now it was single shots. Still mostly from the odd weapons of the ambushers.

"Get clear, boss..." His XO said weakly as she tried to stuff her guts back in from the tear in her armored suit. Another of his people lay still. Of the other two? Nothing remained. "Do... the mission... I am okay. I am okay..."

"Lacy, don't be stupid." Horatius snapped. "Let me see." He scanned her and blanched under his helmet. She wasn't just hit, she was hemorrhaging! His hands flew in trained patterns. She was breathing. Control the bleeding. He pulled her hands away and set a small regenerator on her injury. One use only, but this qualified as a need.

"Charlie Mike, boss..." Lacy gasped as he covered her wound with a rough field bandage. 'Continue Mission'. A medical Osprey would have done far better, but they hadn't carried anything that large with them. "Jack is alive... unconscious but alive. Ko and Gils... I..."

"I know." Horatius said quietly as he checked the HUD. Only... pieces of his other two still remained. "Don't move, Lacy. I have you stabilized for now." It wouldn't last, but if he _could_ get her to evac...

Horatius froze as a pair of humans in oddly familiar uniforms appeared over the lip of the crater. Both were aiming weapons at him. Did he know the weapons? They were not... quite anything he knew. But... they tickled his memory. And if they _were_ military...

"Medic?" Horatius begged. He dropped his Dera and swept Lacy's Lanka away from her. "For the love of _Profit_! _Medic!_" He screamed as he put his hands on his helmet as he remembered the histories saying was the right way to surrender. Grineer wouldn't have cared, but these... Whoever these guys were, they knew history. "Please..."

"Well, _hell_. Corpus. _Just_ what we needed." The older of the two, a male human with three stripes on his armored sleeve said with a sigh. "Go on, PFC. Get the medics." The younger one scurried away and the older shook his head. "The gunny ain't gonna be happy."

"_PFC_? _Gunny_?" Horatius said slowly. "Wait..." The _uniforms_, _ranks_, the _weapons_... His eyes went huge as he _finally_ recognized them. _Marines?_ _**Orokin**_ _**Marines**__?_ He was _very_ careful _not_ to move as a number of others in the same uniform stepped up, some with medical gear in hand, others with weapons ready.

_Oh... __**shit**__..._


	4. Chapter 4

**Who knows what**

Horatius sat. It was all he could do. The odd beings who looked and acted like Orokin Marines hadn't been overly rough. But they had been professional. Not content to strip him of his gear, they had taken his helmet and searched his suit _very_ thoroughly. Then they had gagged and blindfolded him. They hadn't found two of his hideouts, but with his hands manacled behind him...

"LT..." The voice of the sergeant who had captured him sounded angry now. "What the hell are we supposed to do with these?"

_'LT'?_ Horatius asked himself. Short for 'lieutenant'? An officer?

"Are the wounded stable, sergeant?" The female voice that replied sounded... odd. Horatius wasn't sure how. But she didn't sound right. "We can't stay here."

"Yes, but... LT, we can't carry them with us." The sergeant said firmly. "Carrying our two on litters is going to be bad enough. We need to egress _now_ if we want to make the pickup." The female voice sighed.

"Do you have _any_ idea what the gunny would do to us if we shot them, sergeant?" The other asked, a hint of ice in her voice. The male voice groaned.

"Ma'am, with all due respect..." The other said uneasily. "We can't take them with us."

"And if we _leave_ them here?" The other asked calmly. "The woman won't be able to walk. Leaving them here is just as bad as putting bullets in them if not _worse_. You know what the Grineer will do to them. You know it, sergeant."

"Yes, Ma'am." The man said, his tone resigned. "I will... get some more litters set up."

"No." The female lieutenant said calmly. "You all need to get moving. Now. Get them in."

"Ma'am!" The sergeant protested.

"_Now_, sergeant." The female said firmly and the sergeant sighed. "And ungag them. I do not want them to strangle if they get tossed around and land wrong." Something hissed nearby and Horatius could hear bodies moving close at hand. A hatch of some kind?

"Yes, Ma'am." The sergeant said sourly. "Under protest, Ma'am. They are Corpus. They have _already_ seen more than they should have."

"We have done our mission, Sergeant." The officer replied as hands took hold of Horatius and lifted him easily. "Now it is time to get the _hell_ out of here." Someone was unwrapping whatever had been wrapped around his jaw to keep him from being able to talk as he was set down on a hard metal floor. "Go on. I will see you at the rendezvous."

"You _better_ be there, LT." The sergeant said firmly as the hands holding Horatius laid him down. Then... they let him go. Whatever had hissed did so again.

"Yeah... well..." The officer sounded upset now and Horatius understood. "What is your rank, Corpus?"

"Are you _really_ Orokin Marines?" Horatius was amazed his voice was so calm. If these _were_ Orokin Marines, or just humans who had found a stockpile of gear... No. _Gear_ alone wouldn't have accounted for the way such a small force had _obliterated_ a large force of Grineer including at _least_ two tanks and fighter craft.

"I am the one asking the questions, Corpus." The officer replied, a hint of ice entering her voice again. "I can call you 'Corpus' if that is what you want. But my superiors are going to want to know what a team of spec ops was doing sneaking into our AO."

"You _are_ Marines..." Horatius said weakly. This...officer wasn't some avid _reader_. This was a real, live Orokin Marine officer. Which was flatly _impossible_. All of them had died in the Collapse. Hadn't they?

"You _really_ think I am going to tell you that?" The other asked, somewhat amused.

"No." Horatius said a bit weakly. This wasn't like him. But then again... Special Forces traced it's roots back to Orokin like so much more of the Corpus. The survivors who had founded the Corpus hadn't included any Marines. But the literature had been...extensive. Much of it had been romanticized historical dramas or other such drivel. But not _all_. He was talking to a living, breathing relic of the past. One who apparently _wasn't_ going to kill him out of hand. "My people?"

"Unconscious, but alive." The other said calmly. "For now. They are stable, but their wounds are beyond battlefield medicine. Rank and mission?"

"I..." Horatius said softly. Then he sighed. "Rank is Commander. Mission was to contact whoever was harrying Grineer forces on Mars."

"Well... Commander." The other said quietly. "You accomplished your mission."

"Sort of." Horatius tested the bonds on his wrists again, but whatever they were, they were far beyond even his heavily augmented strength. "Gonna be a little hard to report the success." He said with a glint of his usual good humor.

"Yeah." The other replied evenly. A hum sounded from close at hand. A drive of some kind? Were they _moving_? "What am I supposed to do with you, Commander? You saw us. If you were Grineer..." She made a sour noise. "But you are not. You are human."

"Sometimes." Horatius admitted. "Job sucks, but someone has to do it."

"Well, we are not going to shoot you out of hand." The other replied. "But don't get any ideas. We cannot take any chances right now. There is too much at stake."

"Well..." Horatius said slowly. "If... If I remember correctly... then civilian militias were allowed, under Orokin, yes?"

"You are a _little_ better equipped than most militia would be, Commander." The other said dryly enough that Horatius cracked a smile. "Not to mention better _trained_. We had _no_ idea you were in the kill box when we initiated. Sorry about that. Wouldn't have changed anything, mind you."

"No." The Special Forces operative said calmly. "I knew when I saw the fighters coming in that we had little chance. Nice trick though. Never seen a surface to air missile outside of history holos."

"We have our ways." The other said evasively, but then she paused. "Well, well, well... You wouldn't happen to know why a heavily stealthed drone might be following us, would you?" A whine sounded nearby. Something charging. Something _big_. "Not Grineer tech."

"Vital scan downlink failure." Horatius said without hesitation. "If we lose a team, we want to know what happened. If you shoot it down, you will give away your position to every Grineer in the area. Hell, they might see it in _orbit_. You know they are looking now."

"And if I _don't_..." The officer replied evenly. "Your people follow me to where I... hmmm..."

"Ma'am?" Horatius asked carefully.

"If your scans pop back up out of nowhere..." The officer sounded curious now. "What happens?"

"If we are _lucky_?" Horatius said savagely. "The drone drops a large _bomb_ on our position. If we are _un_lucky? They send a call to the Grineer asking the clones why they set such an obvious _trap_ at the coordinates. The Grineer investigate and... yuck." The officer inhaled sharply and he sighed. "The Grineer have done it before. Many times. They like catching people trying for rescues. We have learned not to try."

"Ouch." The lieutenant said with feeling. "Well, hell." She said sourly. "Can't shoot it down. Can't talk to it. Can't lead them to my men..." She sighed. "How long will they pursue?"

"As long as they can." Horatius said sadly. "They likely had the drone up as soon as they lost vital scan downlink. My bet is they tracked this vehicle from the ambush site. They may be trying for a visual."

"I wish them luck." The other said with a laugh. "They will _need_ it. Power signatures can be hard to hide, but visual? This thing was designed to kill tanks that had top of the line sensors. They need to be a _lot_ closer to get through my ECM. Close enough for my secondaries to swat it. Their signature is lot less conspicuous."

"Ma'am." Horatius couldn't believe he was having this conversation. "This vehicle? I don't know how big it is, but it has to have footprint. That footprint can be tracked. Drop us off."

"Commander." The LT sounded upset now. "Not a chance if they will _kill_ you or let the _Grineer_ kill you."

"Mission first, Ma'am." Horatius said, tired. "You are either an Orokin Marine officer or the best damn actress I have ever met in my _life_. If you _are_ a Marine... The system needs you. Far more than a couple of busted up Special Forces grunts." He shook his head. "Drop us off. Leave us. We can... egress. Escape and evade. Make contact. Eventually."

"If I _do_, your female soldier will die." The other said quietly. "At the very least."

"Mission comes first." Horatius said sadly. "Lacy knew the risks. She would hit me upside the head for doing anything else. If she was conscious, she would be yelling at me for not doing the mission anyway. For not leaving her and Jack to die."

"Mission, men, me." The other said softly. For a moment, Horatius did not understand, then it clicked. Do the mission _first_, _then_ take care of the men under your command, then and _only_ then, take care of yourself. An officer's mantra. "No." The other voice firmed.

"Ma'am..." Horatius protested.

"Correct me if I am wrong, commander." The other said firmly. "You are human, yes?"

"Yes." Horatius said slowly.

"And you are in danger, yes?" The LT sounded determined now. Horatius felt a flutter of anxiety rise.

"Danger is my _job_, Ma'am." Horatius said with a snort. "But yes."

"My orders were and I quote..." The LT said firmly. "'Destroy Grineer infrastructure. Disable Grineer communications and do as much damage as possible while not hazarding your command'."

"I don't..." Horatius started to speak and but himself off when she coughed. "Uh, sorry..."

"I am not done." The officer said dryly. "'Adjunct to those orders: If humans in danger are encountered, do what is needed to safeguard them while not hazarding your command.'" Horatius went totally still and she chuckled. "Well?"

"And I thought _I_ was crazy." Horatius said with a snort of his own. "How do _Corpus Special Forces_ qualify as civilians, Ma'am?"

"They never _said_ 'civilians', Commander." The other said in a slightly snooty voice. "My orders say 'humans' not 'civilians'. You are human. I am _not_ leaving you to die." That was firm.

"Ma'am..." Horatius could not _believe_ he was having this conversation. "Mission?" He asked weakly.

"If the mission called for it, Commander..." The other said quietly. "I _would_ shoot you. Either to preserve the mission or to keep you out of the hands of the Grineer and their... _interesting_ concept of 'mercy'. Wouldn't enjoy it, but I _would_ do it if the mission called for it. It doesn't. The Grineer cannot see this vehicle or catch it." She paused. "But..."

"The drone can." Horatius said softly.

"Yeah." The other said with a grunt. "So... Can I ask a question about priorities?" She asked after a moment.

"What kind?" Horatius asked carefully. "I may not be able answer."

"Fairly straightforward." The other replied. "If they suddenly had three targets instead of one, any idea which they would go for? Or do they have more than one drone?"

"More than one drone would be wasteful." Horatius said with a trace of ice himself. "Wouldn't waste the one if they could help it. Throwing good money after bad isn't the Board's way."

"Well..." The other mused. "That is... shortsighted." Something rattled nearby and Horatius flinched as something moved. "Relax." The voice said quietly. "You are clear of the mechanisms."

"Excuse me for saying this, lieutenant." Horatius said with as small smile. "But asking me to _relax_ when I got my team blown up, got captured, and now am about to be written off for _downsizing_ by the Corpus is _not_ going to work." A snicker escaped the other and Horatius chuckled too. "Just saying."

"You are crazy." The other said with a snort as she tried to control her laughter.

"Been said." Horatius said with a sigh. "Anyway... they will likely follow whatever they think is the most probable track. If it leads somewhere they can access, or makes sense for people on the run to flee to. Not that you are running."

"Eh..." The other said with a audible shrug. "Survival usually kind of trumps stupid courage." A 'thump' sounded, followed by another. "And...we shall see."

"Some kind of decoy?" Horatius asked and then shook his head. "Never mind. You won't tell me."

"Let's just say that if they _do_ follow something else, it won't give them any intel." The other said in a somewhat smug tone. "So..." She hummed a little. "Anything you can talk about? No codes or anything. Just curious."

"I..." Horatius sighed. "Any codes I know will be invalid as soon as they upload that my trace vanished. Standard procedure. Any intel I have will be out of date quick too. So... we just disappear?"

"I don't know." The lieutenant said quietly. "This is above my pay grade. Standard operating procedure is that if we encounter wounded humans, we transport to medical facilities. But... You are not normal humans."

"No, Ma'am." Horatius admitted.

"So..." The other groaned. "My bosses are not going to be happy. But there is no need to be rude. You cannot escape currently although you will try as soon as you are loose at all." Horatius jerked and she laughed sourly. "I know your type, Commander. You wouldn't know the word 'surrender' if it _bit_ you."

"If you _are_ Orokin Marines..." Horatius said softly. "Then..." He shook his head. "Where have you been? How...? I mean... How have you hidden all this time? And why now? Why show up _now_?"

"I cannot answer your questions, Commander." The other said softly. "My superiors may or may not be able to. But one thing I _can_ guarantee. If you try to escape or hurt anyone trying to escape, it will not end well for you. Clear?"

"Clear." Horatius said softly but clearly.

"Get some rest." The other said, not unkindly. "We have long trek to our extraction point and the drone has moved off. I will keep an eye on it. But don't do anything dumb and you will get out of this intact. Get squirrely?"

"_'Squirrely'_, Ma'am?" Horatius asked, confused. "A squirrel was some kind of higher order primate, wasn't it?"

"Sorry, ancient slang. And no. It means rambunctious." The other clarified and the Special Forces soldier nodded. "Sleep if you can. It's at least two hours to our rally point if I don't have to evade Grineer patrols or that drone again. Sorry for the lack of a bunk."

"Bunks?" Horatius said in an archaic accent. "We don't need no stinkin' bunks. We are Special Forces. We can sleep _anywhere_."

"Speak for yourself." Horatius went still as Lacy's voice sounded from close at hand. She sounded...awful. "Where are we, boss?"

"Dunno." Horatius said quietly. "But um... We are prisoners of the Orokin Marine Corps."

"You are shitting me!" Lacy exclaimed and then gasped in pain.

"Don't move too hard, Ma'am." The female Marine said calmly. Horatius could _feel_ Lacy's stunned expression. "Your injuries were tended, but are beyond the scope of battlefield medicine. I am taking you to evacuation. Once there, you can be tended and we can figure out what to do from there. How to get you back where you belong. Right now, you are not our enemies. Do as we say and you will be okay."

"Don't do anything stupid, Lacy." Horatius said quietly. "I don't know what is going on, but you, me and Jack are alive. That is better than I expected to tell the truth when I saw the bombs fall."

"Me too." His team sniper said sadly. "But of all the silly things... We were _late_."

"Yeah." Horatius said sourly.

"Late?" The female Marine asked. "Oh, right..." She snickered. "Only thing worse than being on _time_ to an ambush is being _late_ for one. Not your fault." She said in a consoling tone. "We will find a way to get you all home."

"Do we have to?" Lacy asked sadly. Horatius hissed, but he knew her well. He knew her feelings.

"Ma'am..." The Marine sounded cautious. "You are Special Forces. Right?"

"Lacy didn't have any real choice in the matter." Horatius said with a sigh. "Not after she gutted the son of an executive who couldn't keep his hands to himself. Pity she didn't kill him, that would have been easier to hide from." The silence was deafening and Horatius shrugged even though it hurt. "Lots of people come to Special Forces from... shall we say... less than ideal circumstances. All we ask is if you can do the job, not why you want to join."

"I see." The Marine said softly. "Well, for what it is worth, I won't leave any of you to die. I can't say what will happen when we get back to base, but for now... Rest. I have got you."

Horatius tried to stay awake, but the humming was oddly soothing. He heard Lacy's breathing ease into sleep as well and then he too was drifting away.

* * *

><p><strong>Later<strong>

"LT Charlotte... With all due respect, Ma'am... HAVE YOU _LOST_ YOUR BLOODY _MIND_?"

The male voice wasn't -quite- a scream, but the intensity level was through the _roof_. Horatius jerked, but he wasn't where he had been. He was lying on something soft. It yielded under him but when he tried to move, he couldn't. He still couldn't see. Something was holding him down, but... not any kind of restraints he knew. It felt... like energy?

"Gunny, I took responsibility." The voice of the female Marine was coming from a ways away. It sounded... mechanical? "They were in the kill box when we initiated. Two died to Grineer ordnance. The others were hurt. They _surrendered_. What was I _supposed_ to do? _Shoot_ them?" She demanded.

"Of all the-... _STUPID_...!" What _had_ to be a high ranked NCO sounded as if he was hair's breadth from losing his temper.

"Not her fault!" Horatius managed to croak out the words somehow. "_Ours_! Blame _me_! _Us_... Not _her_. She... is..."

"Sir, calm down." The voice of what had to be a medic came from close at hand and suddenly, Horatius was floating. He was going under. "Gunny, lieutenant?"

"Aw _crap_..."The NCO said with a sigh. "Okay, tend them. But for the love of _god_, keep them _secure_... And as for _you_, LT..._You_ come with me. _You_ get to explain to _the big boss_ why you just violated almost every _single_ aspect of our security arrangements." A female gulp sounded.

_Not her fault._ Horatius was pleading as he slipped under. _Not her fault..._


	5. Chapter 5

**Ow**

Commander Horatius hurt. Every fiber of his being hurt. He tried to move past it and after a long moment, managed to dull the pain through sheer force of will. Pain was a fact of life. While he wasn't really as crazy as some of his allies thought on occasion, he _did_ know pain. No one made it through Corpus Special Forces training without learning to deal with pain, or in some cases, _love_ it. And then the job...

Horatius had done some tough jobs for the Board, for the Clergy. He had been shot, stabbed, blown up more than once, and basically _hurt_ in a number of ways doing his job. His job was not safe by any stretch of the imagination. But he was good at it. He had been good at it for a long, long time. Corpus technology was sufficient to allow for lifespans of thousands of years if the being in question had the funds to provide for them _or_ was deemed a needed asset of the company. Horatius had been deemed such an asset. He had just reached his third century. The parents he dimly remembered were long gone. Fond memories, but only memories. He did the job.

"Good morning." A voice that Horatius remembered pulled him out of his daze and he jerked as he realized that he was unfettered. His eyes shot open and he froze as he saw the woman standing by one wall of the room he was in. But...the room...wasn't right. He couldn't say _how_ it wasn't right, but it wasn't. It was bare. He was lying on the floor, but it wasn't hard. It felt...comfortable. Lis nodded to him. "Commander."

"I... uh..." Horatius swallowed. "The Tenno said... you were... going to suffer for eternity."

"Things change." Lis said quietly. "My duty is to Sara. Now and always. But she is moving on, finding her own path. The healers are getting a little annoyed with me not letting them heal me, so..." She shrugged. "They never _said_ I died." Her tone was mild, but her eyes were twinkling.

"If I had thought we had a chance, I would have recruited you." Horatius said with a sigh. "You were -are- good."

"Lots of harsh training and lots of experience." Lis said with another shrug. "A lot like you actually. Crappy jobs for the most part. Until recently anyway. "

"_Someone_ has to do the crummy jobs." Horatius agreed. Then he shook his head. "Is this an interrogation?"

"No." Lis replied evenly. "They got all the information you had while you slept." Horatius went still and Lis nodded. "They were gentle, but very thorough." She raised a hand in warning as he opened his mouth to exclaim. "And no, there are limits to the information that you get. There is way too much at stake."

"Then... why let me wake at all?" Horatius said slowly. "This... doesn't seem like a good idea."

"Good?" Lis queried. "I don't know. But I do know this. You could have taken me on that outpost, Commander. You and your team. It would have hurt, cost you a couple of your people, but you could have. Why didn't you?"

"If I have been scanned..." Horatius said slowly. "Then you know."

"I want it in your words." Lis said slowly. "I _liked_ Gen H-12." Horatius jerked and then nodded.

"We were deep cover." Horatius said quietly. "We had been sent to infiltrate a terrorist cell, but _not_..." He emphasized the word. "...to destroy them. The Board wanted us to. We couldn't care less what the _Board_ wants. They use us, screw us and throw us away to further their profits. We do not serve the Board."

"I figured that out when you let me go after killing that Black Ops team. You serve the Clergy." Lis said quietly. "So... The reason _you_ are here and _I_ am here is fairly straightforward. You saw it." Horatius jerked and Lis nodded. "The answer is 'yes'." That took a moment for Horatius to understand and when he did, all the breath left his body in a solid whoosh.

"Are you _out_ of your fucking _mind_?" Horatius exploded. "After what Maxwell D-90 did to you? After what the Board has done? After... _everything?_ You would... _just_..." He went still as she nodded silently. "_Why?_" He demanded.

"It's simple." Lis said quietly. "I want humanity to survive too." Horatius choked on his instant retort and swallowed hard. "I am not human, Commander Horatius. But I _was_ once."

"I..." Horatius hadn't felt fear like what washed over him in a long, long time. "Tenno? You are _Tenno?_"

"Don't tell me you didn't suspect." Lis said, small smile playing over her face. "I know better."

"Do you have ANY IDEA WHAT THE BOARD WILL DO?" Horatius hadn't planned on screaming, but he was. "They..." He went still as Lis knelt. An... oddly formal a posture. One he dimly recalled from somewhere as having been called 'seiza' in ancient martial arts. It looked... right. "I... No... You can't..."

"My DNA is human." Lis said quietly. "I was human. Once. They cannot do what they tried with Amelia and Sara Priosa from my DNA. It is simply not possible. The other... samples they took were not human. You know this." Horatius nodded jerkily and Lis sighed. "Angering Serene is a _very_ bad idea. And Bek _is_ angering her with him trying again." Horatius went totally still and Lis nodded. "He is. He is taking samples that he stole from Alad V and cloning them. The results apparently...don't live long according to our sources."

"Aw shit..." Horatius slumped in place. "We are screwed."

"Not yet." Lis said calmly. "Luckily for a _lot_ of people, Serene has sworn off of field work. But _anger_ her enough and she _will_ again. You saw her on Larissa." Horatius swallowed and nodded. Lis smiled a bit sadly. "Darkness manifested. That is her."

"Bloody terrifying." Horatius agreed. "Which is the whole point I bet."

"I have heard of Infested running from her." Lis said with a sigh. "I believe it."

"Me too." Horatius said with a grunt. "So... what? Why wake me? Why talk to me?"

"Two reasons." Lis said calmly. "One, you are a conduit to the Clergy. Your other...soldiers..." She paused and her face turned sad.

"Lacy doesn't want to go back." Horatius said quietly. "She was good. Loyal. But... she never wanted to stay. I made her XO to keep her busy. She isn't... like me."

"I know." Lis said quietly. "Or me for that matter. She still has the core of wanting to do the right thing. That... will burn her out or burn her up. Good person. Bad situation."

"Lots of that in Special Forces." Horatius said with a shrug. "And the second thing? Wait! Jack?" He asked and Lis bowed her head. "Oh no..."

"I am sorry, Commander." Lis said softly. "There is too much intercranial damage. He is not going to wake up." Horatius slumped and Lis nodded. "I know about losing comrades."

"I bet you do." Horatius said with a sigh. "So... what? What do you want from me?"

"Not me." Lis said quietly as another form appeared. She simply..._appeared_ beside Lis who nodded to the...woman who was...wearing a...golden crown. One that was starting to... _glow!_ Horatius went totally still as he recognized it. The _Crown_ of _Orokin_! The _symbol_ of the Orokin Royal Family!

"Empress...?" His voice was soft, scared almost.

"Commander Horatius." The _impossible_ Empress said quietly. "You will not remember this conversation. You will not remember who had you or what happened. You were captured by people in odd uniforms. Uniforms of Orokin nature. None of the rest of your team survived the ambush."

"I..." Horatius was on his knees, with no clue how he had gotten there. "No... I... I want to serve! To help!"

"You can." The Empress said softly. "But it will be a hard task."

"We only get hard jobs, Ma'am." Horatius said with a sigh. "What do you need?"

"We cannot and will not aid the Board in it's insane attempts to profit from horror." The Empress said firmly. Horatius nodded. "That said... We may... be able to help _you_."

"Me?" The Special Ops trooper asked cautiously. "Why me?"

"You are available." The Empress sounded cold and aloof now. "I... do not agree with much of what the Corpus does. What they want or how they go about it. But even I have to admit, compared to the Grineer, they are definitely the _lesser_ of two evils."

"I dunno, Ma'am." Horatius said slowly. "I mean... The Grineer don't usually lie about who or what they are. The Board?" He shrugged expressively. "So... What do you want me to do?"

"Escape."

**Some time later**

"You realize this is a _very_ bad idea." The words were respectful... but...

"Your opinion is noted, Gunnery Sergeant Smith." Eliza, Empress of Orokin said quietly as she watched through the window as the Corpus Special Forces commander was laid out on a surgical bed. "Show us an alternative?"

"I..." Miguel sighed deeply and shook his head. "I am just a grunt, Ma'am. I shoot things when I am told to. This spy and political stuff is out of my area of expertise." He glanced at her sidelong. "That said... Lieutenant Charlotte _should_ have contacted us. Or left them somewhere."

"It was...a surprise." Eliza agreed. "But the benefits may outweigh the potential risks. The woman?"

"Ma'am..." Miguel said with a sigh. "If what Charlotte says is true, and she _isn't_ a liar by nature, she doesn't want to be a soldier. Every limited scan the docs have done says the same thing. She is unhappy with what she was doing. She is good, no question. But this...?" He shrugged. "I dunno."

"Should I talk to her?" Eliza asked after a moment.

"No." Miguel said firmly. "Permission to speak freely?"

"Always, sergeant." Eliza scoffed. "You know that. At least in private."

"Frankly..." Miguel was obviously choosing his words with care now. "Letting the one we are going to release see you was a mistake in my opinion, Ma'am. Mind wipes can go wrong. He _could_ remember."

"We needed to ask his permission." Eliza said quietly. "But point taken. It's just... I feel so isolated at times with Sara and Lis and Serene gone. Mishka and Rocky are wonderful, but I am always so busy..." Miguel nodded.

"My advice?" He said quietly. "_Make_ time to spend with Michelle. Time to spend with Mishka and Rocky. Go to that music class of Mishka's if you wish. With Michelle here, you don't have to do it all." Eliza paused at the words and glanced at the sergeant. He shrugged again. "Not quite the same speech I give new LTs but the same gist. You don't have to do it all. Delegate." A polite cough came from nearby and Miguel turned to where the two Tenno guards who never left Eliza's side stood. "Yes?"

"Good _luck_, Sergeant." The Ash Prime on the right said with smirk in his voice. "We have been trying to get her to do just that for the last three hundred _years_." Miguel turned to look at Eliza who flushed a little.

"I... um... well... True. Michelle is here now and she is helping." Eliza said softly. "Raven is back and I think to stay. She... said she doesn't feel right outside. Too many people staring." She smiled a bit wistfully. "She may be opposition, but she is smart and dedicated. But all people see is the scars."

"Judging by appearances..." Miguel said with a sigh. "Morons."

"No argument there." Eliza said with a sigh. "So... this Lacy? What does _she_ want? Do we know?"

"She just out of surgery." Miguel said with a frown. "Haven't had a chance to ask yet. She was good, no question. They all were to get into the middle of the ambush site undetected by our people _or_ the Grineer. But if she doesn't _want_ to be a soldier..."

"We won't force her." Eliza said firmly. "Who is going to..." She paused as Miguel winced. "Oh... Lilly demanded to talk to her, didn't she?" The Empress asked, her face a little worried.

"Lilly and Lis." Miguel said with a shiver. "Now _there_ is a combination I would not want to try."

"Agreed." Eliza smiled a little. "So... can you do it? Drop him off?" Miguel just looked at her and she sighed. "Look, sergeant, I understand what I am asking. What I am asking is wrong. But it is needed. If they _are_ getting desperate..."

"We only have his word for that, Ma'am." Miguel jerked his head at the window.

"No." Eliza said softly. "It is corroborated." Miguel stiffened and Eliza nodded. "And if his reaction is anything to go by... I don't think the Clergy knew about Bek's latest brainstorm. None of our sources said anything."

"Tell Karl's people?" Miguel said quietly. "You know they will shut it down. Hard."

"But that won't stop it." Eliza said quietly. Miguel shook his head and Eliza sighed. "Oh, I don't doubt that Karl's people will trash the area, kill any they find and destroy or snatch any information they can make off with. But the Corpus are not stupid. They will have backups. Lots of them."

"Right." Miguel shook his head. "We can do what you ask, Ma'am. We can plant him somewhere that it is plausible that he escaped us to. But then what? If they will just _kill_ him..."

"They won't." Eliza said with a small. Secretive smile. "Or... I have it on very good authority they won't."

"I hate it when you say things like that, Ma'am." Miguel said with a grunt.

"Welcome to _our_ world. Sergeant." The Ash Prime said with a snort of his own. "Check your _sanity_ at the door."

**Huh?**

Horatius jerked. What the-? Had he fallen asleep? What had...?

He stared around wildly, but the small cave hadn't changed. The still form of the only member of his tiny team who he had managed to grab and escape with lay still. He was no medic, but the readings from jack's helmet worried him. A lot. His head was fuzzy, so fuzzy.

A woman had been talking to him. One he knew? Lis...something or other? But the conversation had made little sense. One word over and over. 'Yes'. But 'yes' to what? He didn't know. Or... he couldn't remember. He focused on what he could remember.

His team had crept into someone else's ambush. Some had been killed and the others had been captured. He had been placed in some kind of vehicle with his wounded squadmate. Lacy hadn't survived and the oddly uniformed people had removed her...corpse... from the vehicle. But then... he had seized his chance when it had started to move again. He had thrown himself out and pulled Jack's still form with him. One of his holdout blades had cut the restraints off and he had fled. Then he had alternated between crawling with Jack's still form on his back and running with the man in his arms.

He hadn't seen any pursuit, but that meant nothing. He was still on Mars. That was clear from the red landscape, but the terrain was _very_ different from where the Grineer had been ambushed. He knew there were Corpus facilities on planet. Some even still in Corpus hands. Or at least, they had been. Now? He had no idea. But he had to get back. He had to report. If those odd uniforms were what he thought... everything was about to change.

Orokin Marines. Someone had found a cache of gear that had been used by Orokin Marines, the _single_ most elite pure human fighting force of the Orokin era. And not just that, but they were trained. Professionals. Maybe not Special Forces, but professionals. He had no idea how, but they were actually Marines. So... Things were about to change. If the Grineer discovered that group, they would do _anything_ at _all_ to wipe them out before the word could spread. Before _hope_ could spread. Grineer relied as much on fear as they did on their brutality. If that fear faltered?

The clones were numerous, but no one had a solid grasp on how many human survivors actually still existed in the Origin System. It could be as few as a million but some numbers said thirty or forty billion, scattered all around the various habitats and colonies. If all of them realized that hope still lived... That would fundamentally shift the balance of power, something the Grineer would not allow. The atrocities they committed daily would pale in comparison to the slaughter they would unleash. He had to warn the Corpus. But if he just popped back up on the screens... he would invite death. So... he had to do it smart. But...

Horatius stared across at where his squadmate lay and shook his head slowly. He couldn't help Jack. There was no way the man would survive alone in the Martian wilderness. He... had no choice. He sighed and did what had to be done.

* * *

><p>"Damn..." Miguel's voice was hushed as he watched through the concealed camera that had been secreted in the cave they had deposited the two Special Forces guys in. "He <em>told<em> me... I didn't _believe_ him..." The Special Forces Commander had just broken his subordinate's _neck_.

"What else could he _do_, Gunny?" Charlotte's voice was subdued too. "The other wasn't going to _survive_ and he _has_ to finish the mission." Miguel just growled at her and she sighed. "Gunny... Okay, I got emotional. I screwed up, all right? But I couldn't just shoot them. _You_ wouldn't have just shot them." She paused. "There he goes..."

The small tank destroyer's sensors were fine tuned and even _they_ had difficulty following the Special Forces operative as he crept from the cave, seeking high ground to try and find his way to a Corpus facility. And the completion of his mission.

Miguel just shook his head, eying the small satchel that sat beside the commander's seat of the tank destroyer.

The one marked 'DNA samples'.


	6. Chapter 6

**Sneaks**

Horatius could not shake the feeling. He was under surveillance. He knew the feeling well. Living amongst the wage slaves for the Corpus Board made any kind of life a perpetual struggle against people who wanted to know what he was doing, when and why. Some of them actually had good motives. Not many. So he had learned early to listen when is inner voice started shouting 'Hey! Someone is watching you!'

Problem was, he couldn't see who it was. There was limited cover available out here. The Corpus facility he was heading to had been a minor outpost once. He had quickly scanned a set of high definition maps of the planet prior to the mission, fixing in his not quite eidetic memory what was still listed as intact as a matter of course. Missions rarely went as planned, although _this_ one was going off the rails in a manner spectacular enough for any horror story.

He moved carefully through a small ravine. More ditch than ravine, it was little more than a shallow depression leading up to the steps of the dilapidated structure he could see ahead now. It had definitely been a Corpus facility once. But that had been some time in the past and seeing the blast marks and bullet holes left behind gave no illusions as to what had happened here. Grineer.

His trained eyes also picked up the days or weeks old residue of yet another threat. Weathered bit of bone and small fragments of flesh lay in places. He knew those minute indicators, but the good news was that they were few in number. Apparently, the Grineer had managed to scour the outpost after the Infestation had swept through. He had seen that happen on occasion. The clones usually went for extreme overkill in such situations and that was really the only thing he could think that the Grineer were actually good at. Then again, it didn't require a great deal of imagination to kill every living thing that could be found. It wouldn't stop the Infestation from surfacing again. Nothing would. But it _would_ slow it down. So the facility was not Infested or the Grineer would not have left it without a garrison of _some_ kind. Not even the clones were that stupid. Even they could -and had- learned.

The only good news was that whoever was following him wasn't Grineer. The clones would have just run up and either shot him or dragged him away for their idea of 'fun'. He had seen the result once and even his own cast iron stomach hadn't been up to seeing it for _long_. Not Grineer, his pursuers, if that _was_ what they were. Maybe some of the Marines? He hadn't seen any. But then again, he had been forced to rush in places, and hadn't always been able to cover all of his tracks as he would have preferred. He bit back a sigh. He needed gear and access to communications. Even mostly destroyed, the facility _should_ have both. Most Corpus facilities had limited self repair systems. To keep the life support running if nothing else. They also had emergency gear lockers that could be accessed by people with the right codes. The gear was there. He was sure of it. If the facility was still standing -and it was- then the lockers likely survived. They were designed to be hard to find even with high tech scanners. One never knew, after all, if a rival Board member would get into his or her head to smash and grab or 'acquire' some assets the old fashioned way. By stealing them.

He didn't move. The voice at the back of his head had changed topics. Now it was crying 'Danger! Danger!' He hadn't lived as long as he had by ignoring that little voice. He was suddenly glad he did as a shadow moved from one wall of the facility and entered a door that hissed shut behind it. A familiar shape. An Ash warframe.

_Aw crud..._ Horatius groaned to himself, careful not to move or do anything. While he had some semblance of concealment... It was not that much. If the Tenno looked for him, it would find him. And if that happened... He was a dead man. He waited for a long moment, but nothing else happened. He shook his head.

He had fought Tenno a couple of times. It had never ended well. He had spent a great deal of time in rehab as a result. The... terror that he had seen on Larissa only _reinforced_ the desire not to face a Tenno with no armor or weapons. Three Tenno had faced two _hundred_ Grineer on Larissa. It hadn't even been _close_ to an even match The Grineer hadn't had a _chance_. He went still as the shadow came out of the building carrying some kind of... was that a datamass? The Ash did not look around, simply loped off without a backward glance.

_What the hell?_ Horatius did not move. Did not even dare to breathe hard. But nothing else happened. Finally he gave himself a tiny shake and eased from his hide. He scuttled forward, his posture as low as he could keep it but nothing happened. Nothing at all.

It was seriously anti-climactic when he got to the door and it hissed open for him. The area inside was lit with emergency lights only. Nothing showed. The Grineer had been through and as was their wont, had rummaged here and there. Several lockers had either been forced open or cut open. But he wasn't here for those.

The Special Forces soldier moved to one wall and nodded as he saw a specific marking. It looked like an imperfection in the metal. Maybe an impact point of some kind of blunt object. It wasn't. He touched the wall at the spot and smirked as a panel slid aside and a keypad shone. A few keystrokes and he had the passcodes for the facility.

_Now... Terminal... Terminal... _

Horatius stepped slowly to a wall and followed it until a door hissed open ahead of him. The tiny room was a hidden safe zone. Not much, just enough for a couple of personnel in case of catastrophic damage to the facility or invasion. But from the looks of it, none of the inhabitants had made it to the room. Everything was as it had been left. The suit did not fit very well, but the armor felt good as he strapped it over his boots and legs. Then the helmet. His codes activated it with no trouble. He pulled a Penta Grenade launcher from the small weapons rack and nodded as he scrutinized it. Fully loaded. No pistols, but then again, he wasn't looking for a fight. The Penta was a great equalizer, one of the best pieces of hand held artillery he had ever handled. He pulled a Prova down and secured to his belt. Only then did he turn to the com system. He checked and everything read as working. He hoped so. He knew a bit, but was no tech. When things broke as they often did in the field, he took them to the techs on his team and they fixed it. He rarely asked how. But he did now how to set a scrambled burst transmission up, This was hardly the first time he had done so, if not... quite under the same circumstances.

He took a deep breath and locked the door, setting a telltale. The Penta wouldn't be great for close quarters fighting, but there shouldn't be anyone here. He hoped and prayed it stayed that way.

"This is Spirit, calling any station." Horatius said calmly. "Requesting redirect. Urgent request redirect to Neptune. I need to speak to HQ. Now. " The response was immediate. Not that he expected anything less. This channel was only used for high priority traffic.

"Identify." The voice was neither male nor female. Not machine or any recognizable voice. Which was intentional.

"Yeah _right_." Horatius snapped. "If I am on this channel I have the codes. I do not know if _you_ have need to know, so I will assume you do _not_. I am Spirit. I need a redirect and I need it _now_. If you do not give me the redirect _now_, I will get one eventually and when I do? I will let _you_ explain to the Board _why_. In _person_. This is a potential net loss for _all_ of us. Get me the bloody redirect. _Now_."

"Redirect coming through." The voice sounded... wary now. "If this is some kind of trick, though I will see you punished."

"Profit, I wish it was..." Horatius said softly. "I truly wish it was."

* * *

><p>"<em>Who<em> did you say?" The voice on the other end was familiar. The Reverend Mother actually sounded _scared_. He didn't blame her.

"Uniforms and weapons were consistent with what I remember reading in history holos of the Orokin Marine Corps." Horatius said firmly. "And not just civilians in gear they scrounged. They were _trained_, professional. We had _no_ idea they were even _there_ until they hit the Grineer force we were trying to ghost through. The team was-"

"What happened?" A harsh male voice interrupted and Horatius tried to stifle his anger at being cut off. But when members of the Board were listening, any sane Corpus soldier kept his mouth shut and did as instructed.

"We were infiltrating the area." Horatius said calmly. "We saw someone attack the Grineer force we were trying to evade. The weapons... They were not our weapon, or Grineer weapon. Not anything I have seen or even heard of outside of history holos. There was a heavy plasma cannon that took out Grineer armor with a single hit. Probably vehicle mounted but I cannot be sure. I did not actually _see_ the vehicle. "

"What did you see?" Another cold male voice.

"Entrenched positions from which the unknown forces laid down extremely accurate fire on the Grineer. The Grineer do not entrench. And these? They were human. When the Grineer advanced, there were explosions. I don't know the exact kind, but they were probably things called 'Claymines'. The Marines were known for using those in ambushes." Horatius paused, but no one else spoke and he continued. "The Grineer advanced and were cut down. The area was saturated with jamming." He slumped a bit. "My team... The Grineer apparently had a backup plan of some kind. A pair of Grineer fighters made a firing pass at the ambush site. They were destroyed."

"Destroyed?" The first male voice snapped. "By troops on the _ground_? What kind of lunacy is this?"

"The plasma cannon that destroyed the tanks destroyed both fighters as well, but I also saw something that looked a lot like something that used to be called a surface to air missile. It was fired from the ground." Horatius said quietly. "But before they were destroyed, they dropped several large explosives. One landed on my team's position. Two KIA and the other two didn't live long after."

"You expect us to believe that some ghosts from the past destroyed a Grineer force?" The other male demanded angrily.

"I can only state the facts as I saw them. I cannot choose what you believe. I was stunned by the explosion, sir." Horatius said, fighting for calm. "When I came to, I found myself surrounded by personnel in the uniforms of Orokin marines. They were... unhappy at my presence."

"And they let you live?" The Reverend Mother sounded worried now. For him?

"I think they were going to take me somewhere else and interrogate me. I managed to get away when they took my team sniper's body out of the vehicle I was being carried in." The Special Forces soldier said with a sigh. "I ran. They had taken my weapons and my armor. I had one other with me, but he did not survive his wounds." He did not elaborate. The Board wouldn't care and he knew the Reverend Mother understood. Oh did she ever.

"It has been three days, Commander." The Reverend Mother said quietly. Horatius froze.

"Three _days_...?" The Commander shook his head. "I cannot account for that time." He slumped. That long meant someone had had him long enough to do all kinds of things to his mind. They would not take the chance. "I... understand. I will go dark. Profit numbs..."

"Wait." This was the first male board member. "You are the only survivor. We need the information you have. An extraction and interrogation team will be dispatched within the hour."

Horatius tried not to gulp. Those teams left very little of the subject afterwards. He had seen...

"Sir, whoever these people were, they were _not_ Grineer." The Spec Force operative said quietly. "I don't know-..." Whatever else he was going to say was tabled as a deafening crack sounded and the whole building shook. "Oh crap!"

He checked the terminal video feed and it showed one outer wall of the tiny facility glowing as it..._melted_. Plasma. He could literally see _through_ the wall at an oddly shaped vehicle that sat near the ravine he had been hiding it. The _really_ big gun on it was _glowing _with waste heat.

_Oh_ _shit..._

"Commander!" One of the Board called. "Report!"

"I was _followed_!" Horatius snapped. "Facility is under _attack_! I have to evade. I will be in touch!"

"Commander!" Several voices started to protest, but Horatius cut the channel and fled as another deafening crack sounded. He fled deeper into the facility.

Most Corpus facilities were built down, deep down into the bedrock of whatever surface they were built upon. This one was no different. That... vehicle -whatever it was- was too big to fit inside the facility's corridors. But for all he knew it could sit there and _melt_ it way through the whole place. So he wasted no time, he ran. But he ran smart, his Penta up and tracking as he darted deeper and deeper into the derelict Corpus facility.

* * *

><p>"Think they got the message, LT?" Miguel said dryly as Charlotte fired again and another part of the Corpus facility turned into molten slag.<p>

"I don't know, Gunny." The brand new -and currently _only_- first lieutenant of the reconstituted Orokin Marine Corps said with a sigh. "Gunny, this is _way_ too complicated. Too many moving parts to this plan. Too many ways for this to go wrong. That was the very first thing they taught me in the Officer's Basic Course. Keep it as simple as possible."

"I know." The Sergeant said with a nod to the satchel beside his seat. "What can go wrong _will_."

"Well, that and... 'Once the pin had been pulled, Mr. grenade is no longer your friend'." Charlotte said with a snort. Miguel snorted in matching dark humor. Murphy's Laws of Combat hadn't changed much even after so long. "How much more do we slag?"

"Give it another one or two." Miguel said quietly and the tank destroyer hummed as energy pulsed into it's main weapon, transforming from raw power into ravening ball of sun hot matter propelled in a magnetic containment field. When said field hit something solid? Ouch. The only true limiting factor here was power, and since the tank destroyer had a micro fusion pile as its power source... Miguel smiled grimly as an interior wall melted. "He is gone by now. Ah..."

A figure had appeared nearby. An Ash warframe. It waved a sketchy salute to the tank destroyer and set down the datamass it held before loping into the burning wreck that was left of much of the visible structure of the Corpus facility.

"Pick it up?" Miguel asked and then smirked as golden beam of energy did just that, snatching the dtaamass and pulling it towards the hull of the tank destroyer. "Show-off."

"Our part is done, Gunny." The LT said quietly. "Now it is up to Quais. We should head to the rally point. Make sure it is clear. The rest is up to Quais and Horatius."

"Yeah." Miguel said sourly as the nimble little vehicle turned on its axis to start away from the burning wreck that had once been a Corpus outpost. He had no idea what the place had been used for and truth be told? He didn't care. It wasn't going to be every useful to anyone.

Especially after Quais blew the reactor.

* * *

><p><strong>Not very far away at all<strong>

The Ash warframe moved without a sound. He was cautious. His quarry was both armed and trained to a fare the well. He had caught a glimpse of the human and that glimpse had warned him that maintaining the highest degree of stealth was a very good idea. A Penta would ruin his day if a grenade landed close. Even his bio-technological armor would have... some difficulty with such raw destructive power. But he had his orders. They did not make a great deal of sense to him, but he did not quibble. He was Tenno. He had a mission, he would carry it out even if it made no sense to him.

He saw the human slide into an open vent and nodded slightly as he altered course a little. The facility was small, but had survived a great deal. Grineer and then Infested attacks had rendered the place one step away from uninhabitable. His job was to render it completely such. Make sure the human was not followed by anyone or any_thing_ from this place.

He didn't know why the Lotus had ordered him to secure the data from the facility, wait for the human to go in, get gear and then leave. He didn't care. It wasn't his concern. His concern was far more straightforward as he drew his Dex Furis and took aim at the coolant tubes of the reactor. A howl split the air as the feral denizens that had hidden deep in the facility realized his intent and charged to stop him.

Too late.

He had thinned their numbers before. Now he would end the threat this facility posed. His fire was calm and careful as he shattered the tubes one by one. Then it was done, the lights turned red and a warning siren split the air as Infested charged, only to stop and gawk as he vanished from sight and ran. He had bare minutes to get far enough away before the facility blew itself to atoms. He followed the human, quickly, carefully and above all, silently.

It was what he did.


	7. Chapter 7

**Surviving**

Horatius was running. He wasn't sure if Orokin Marines could track him. Maybe they had injected him with some kind of tracking device? Maybe they had some kind of 'Orokin Marine only' scanner that had locked onto his brainwaves or something. He had no idea at all. What he did know was that staying at that facility was a deathtrap. He checked his armor systems as he ran and everything was in the green. Wait...

He double checked the scans, but it was. Background radiation was rising. A plasma cannon -even one that enormous- wouldn't have caused a _radiation spike_. He shook his head and hurried on his way. Something _else_ had happened at the facility after he had left it. He had to...

**Whang!**

Without any idea of how he had wound up there, he found himself plastered against one all. He stared at the huge piece of metal that had somehow been spring loaded so that it slammed into him as he walked by. A trap. He had tripped a _trap_! He jerked and twisted and eventually managed to get loose from where the bar of metal had him pinned. He stared at it and then at the floor.

He had run right across some kind of trigger assembly. It... didn't look like anything he had ever seen. Not -quite- improvised, but not manufactured either. Somewhere in between. It was...

He dodged to the side as _another_ bar came whistling down from the ceiling and slid by him with millimeters to spare.

_What the hell?_ Horatius asked himself as he stared all around, then he gingerly stepped forward, but nothing else happened. Every sense on hair trigger, he moved forward cautiously. Nothing else happened. But then he heard movement and he slide into a convenient shadow.

"Tripped my traps, the nasties did..." The voice was female. Old. And from her tone? Quite _insane_. "Tasty nasties! Fine, fine, shall we make soup?"

A form came into sight. It was humanoid but... Wrong. It looked _wrong_. What had obviously started as a Corpus space suit was now a shambling mass of rags and... was that Infested _flesh?_ The head was huge, misshapen. Horatius' flesh crawled just _looking_ at it. She stepped forward to examine the trap and exclaimed.

"No tasties?" The old woman sounded upset now. "No tasty flesh for my pretties? Ah..." She pressed a wall and something went 'click'. "Something tripped my trippy trap." She said in a sing song voice. "Some_one_..." She paused and looked around. Horatius remained still in his shadow and her gaze slid over him. "_Someone_ tripped my trippy trap..." She said slowly. "I will find that someone and have him for supper. Come out, come out, trippy person."

Somehow... Horatius did not think she meant 'Have him _over_ for supper'. This woman _smelled_ of crazy. The soldier had heard stories of company personnel who had been left behind to die after assaults or other catastrophes. Everyone in the Corpus did. But this... He went still. She was looking at him.

"Well, well..." The woman said with a small chuckle. "Company. It has been... so long... Come out. Come out where Misa can see you." Horatius did not move except to raise the grenade launcher. It was dangerous to _him_ at this range, but... "Now, don't be like that." The woman said with a lilt. "We are all friends here, no? One big happy Company?" Something sang deep in her voice. It wasn't anger. It wasn't hate. It wasn't even sadness. It was all of these and more. She wasn't just crazy, she was _very_ crazy. _Dangerous_ crazy. "You are a soldier? My little ones would love to meet a soldier." She made to step towards Horatius and he backpedaled a little. "Come, soldier. Meet my pretties."

"Stay where you are." Horatius commanded, the launcher steady in his hands. "I will shoot."

"Shoot Misa?" The woman sounded hurt now. "_Why_? What did Misa do to you?" She did not approach, but she did not retreat either. She was blocking the way. He did _not_ want to let her get any close.

"I need to go." Horatius said firmly. "Company business. Company profits are at..." He paused as the woman seemed to go berserk. He nearly pulled the trigger in sheer reflex as the woman started to howl in rage and pain.

"_Company profits?_" The woman demanded. "What does Misa _care_ for Company profits? Misa _served_! Misa was _loyal_! Misa just wanted her pretties to survive! Filthy clones! Breaking in, tearing up everything! I... I..." She was crying.

"You were here?" Horatius asked slowly. The facility he had been in hadn't been used in a long, long time. Years.

"Misa was here." The other said with a calm that barely overlaid the madness. "Misa was loyal. Misa did as ordered. Misa..." She shook herself sternly. "Misa F-41..." She said slowly. "Misa's name was Misa F-41..." She shook herself again. "Pretties need food." She said softly. "Feed pretties."

"Ma'am, don't move." Horatius said firmly. "I will kill you if you attack me."

"Company men." The woman -Misa- said with a laugh. "So stupid." Something hit Horatius and he was pinned to the wall. His HUD went red as pain slammed up through his leg. The Penta fell from nerveless fingers and he stared down at the short metal rod that had impaled him to the wall and the oddly shaped pistol that the woman had concealed under her odd garment. That was a Tenno weapon! A Bolto he thought it was called. "Pain makes the meal tastier. Feed my pretties well you will."

"No." Horatius snapped as she tore himself from the wall with sheer force of will. He drew the Prova and it arced live in his hand. Then a flash...

* * *

><p>"Geez, this fake Infested crap <em>stinks<em>!" The woman said as she tossed her robe aside. Under it the woman was _not_ one. The Tenno wore a Banshee warframe."Of all the _silly_..." She went to her knees beside the still human and sighed in relief as she checked his vitals and found them strong. A shadow appeared nearby and her Bolto was in hand again. But she lowered it on seeing her partner in this odd escapade. "Quais? All done?"

"Yes." The Ash said quietly as he secured the soldier's weapon. "Facility is destroyed. No infested pursuit. Your end?"

"Sickening beyond words." Two said softly as she carefully tended the soldier's wounds. "They went... deep, Quais. I found them. All of them. They hit a gas pocket." Quais went still and Two nodded. "No live survivors. Just the... tanks that we found on our first recon. And the log."

"All these traps and no chance at all." Quais said heavily. "At least they didn't starve to death."

"Yeah, at least." Two said sadly. "He will be out for a bit. You ready for your part?" Quais nodded and Two sighed. "Just don't kill me. Amelia would _hurt_ you. _Try_ to anyway."

"You think I don't _know_ that, Two?" He asked as he picked up the odd garment from the floor and held it out to the Banshee who sighed but took it. "You do look the part of a crazy woman." He said dryly. "Now if only someone, _anyone_, would tell me _why_ we are doing this..."

"You don't want to know, Quais." Two said with a gulp as she pulled the mass that wasn't actually Infested flesh over her shoulders and settled the huge hood over her warframe's Reverb helmet. "The little I know is bad enough. The good news is... once you show up and save the day, you can leave and continue your hunts."

The Ash was... a bit driven. He always had been but now? He was even more so. Two and Quais had both been taken prisoner by some very nasty pro-Grineer cultists and then rescued by the then sole Orokin Marine left in the Solar System. Two had been hurt worse in being captured and she hadn't really been able to do much until she had woken back at the dojo in the care of the doctor who also happened to be her partner. Quais had escaped once and been recaptured. Then with the _substantial_ diversion provided by Gunnery Sergeant Miguel Smith and a _15000_ _ton_ war machine, he had escaped again and ridden away from the cultists in the huge vehicle that the crazies had built for this 'goddess', an insane human woman. In the course of the resulting battles he had been dropped off, run out of ammunition for his rocket launcher and eventually been surrounded by Grineer in heavy armored vehicles. Only the heroic self sacrifice of another ally had allowed Quais to escape. He took such things seriously. Very seriously. The Sheev dagger he had taken from the Grineer armored platoon's commander's corpse never left his side. If he had ever _bothered_ to count the kills he had made with it... they would have numbered in the _thousands_. He didn't. But... for all his single mindedness, Quais was actually not vengeance crazed. He was paying a debt. No more, no less. The eradication of all Grineer on Mars for the life of a machine that had died to save him.

"Quais..." Two said softly, looking at the Ash. "We understand. Karl asked me... to ask you something."

"Hmmm?" Quais asked as he finished checking the Penta and slung it. He froze as Two held out empty hands to him.

"Karl asked me to invite you to our clan." Two said softly. Quais stared at her.

"I have a clan, Two." Quais said, not moving.

"Who either have not _woken_ to the Lotus' call _or_..." Two sighed.

"_Cannot_." Quais said sadly. Far, far too many Tenno had simply vanished in the ravages of time. Suicide, destruction of cryo pods by Grineer, Corpus or Infested or any number of other fates. "I have... only found one. He was slain by Alad V's Zanuka. I... He had not seen any of the others. He said so before he died on that mission. I fear I am alone, sister."

"No, you are _not_." Two said firmly, her hands still outstretched from underneath the awful robe. "We will not _bind_ you to us, brother. We offer ourselves. Our lives and loves. If others of your kin _did_ survive and you can find them, we will _rejoice_ with you. You are not a slave, not a servant. You are a _brother_. We will help you search if you wish. You do not _have_ to walk this path alone, brother. That way lies madness. A fact I know well." Considering that her mind and twinned from Serene's way back when she had seen Sara being beaten by a Corpus crewman. Oh yes, she did know. "Sister to brother..."

"I..." Quais bowed his head and the nodded slowly as he took her hands. "Brother to sister. Yours in life and death." He went still as Two embraced him. "You are right." He said dryly. "That robe _stinks_."

"Get out of here and for the ancestor's sake, be _careful_ when you shoot?" She pleaded.

"I always hit what I aim at, Two." Quais said calmly.

"Yeah. That is what I am afraid of."

* * *

><p>Horatius swam back to consciousness aware of several things. One, he hurt. His leg and arm hurt like fire. Second, he couldn't move. He was lying on something that was cool under his... his skin? He could feel cloth and armor on his legs, but his chest and head were uncovered. He cracked his eyes and stifled a groan as light bit into them. Dim light he realized when he could see. But light. All around, he could see glowing status panels. Then his eyes focused and he stared wildly. All around, the status panels were live, showing life signs inside the small life support canisters that...<p>

"Well, well, well..." The cackling laugh preceded the crazy woman into his line of sight. "Back with us, soldier?"

"These children are alive..." Horatius said weakly. "Tell me you haven't been putting _Infested_ flesh into the protein vats!" The tiny life support pods would keep their charges alive for some time, but without protein... all would sicken and die eventually despite everything the machinery could do. He was no med tech, but he could see that some of the tiny forms were nearly fully grown. None looked... off or wrong as far as he could see. But what did _he_ know?

He knew what they were. Womb pods. Somehow, the facility staff had managed to move all of their children to this hideaway before they had been attacked or during the attack. And that made Misa their caretaker. She had been here... alone in the dark... for who knew how long. Tending... her pretties. No wonder she was barking mad.

"Silly soldier!" The woman snapped. "No. Misa knows better than to feed _Infested_ to her pretties. They don't travel well. Always fall apart halfway back. Clone flesh is tastier anyway. The proteins are stronger. They last longer." Horatius gulped and she cackled again. "Haven't had any human for some time." A razor sharp blade appeared in her hand and she sidled towards him. "Easy soldier. This is for the best. My pretties are hungry. A little slice and a long, long rest. You feed my pretties." Horatius tested his bonds. If he could just get loose... "Don't struggle soldier. Sours the meat." She warned.

"Ma'am..." Horatius said slowly. "Wait... Look at the pod!" He jerked his head in whatever was holding it. The woman, -Misa- paused and looked. "The telltales are changing color! That kid cannot stay in that womb pod for too much longer! Ma'am! Please! I can help!"

"Pretty?" Misa seemed to stare at the pod for along moment and then she shook her head. "No. No. Corpus _lie_. Corpus _lied_ to Misa. Help would come. They promised. Help _did not come_!" She cried, retreating a step. "Help did _not_ come! All this time, _alone_ with _pretties_. _Help would come_. Promised. Help did _not come_! Help _will_ not come!" She was screaming now. Rage and hate mixed with sadness and despair.

"Help _has_ come! If we do not pull that kid out, he or she will _die!_" Horatius begged. "I _can_ help! I am no med tech, but I _can_ help!"

"You _lie_!" Misa snapped, the blade in her hand coming up into a ready position. "Corpus _lie_ to Misa. Misa knows you Corpus." She said in a silky dangerous voice as she stepped forward, the blade coming up to strike. "But you... _you_ will feed pretties for a long, long-"

Horatius went still as Misa froze. He stared as she did down at the long metal rod that was suddenly protruding from her chest area. An arrow!

"I..." Misa said weakly as a part of the shadows came alive. "No... No... Not my _pretties_!" She begged as the blade fell from her fingers to clatter on the floor. "No... Don't kill my pretties..." She wailed.

Horatius had never thought to be _glad_ to see a Tenno. The Ash warframe did not move, his oddly shaped bow held at half extension as Misa fell to the floor and was still. Was it the same Ash from before? Hard to see in the darkness. For a moment, the Ash just watched Misa until it was clear she would not be moving again. Then he looked at Horatius.

"Do it." Horatius said with a snarl. "Go ahead, Betrayer! _Do it!_" The Ash... lowered his bow.

Horatius eyes went huge as the Ash stepped forward and slung it's bow. The male Tenno laid a familiar object on a surface nearby. Horatius' Penta!

"You... followed me?" Horatius asked and then swallowed hard as an oddly curved blade simply appeared in the Tenno's hand. It looked... vaguely Grineer in design. Horatius did not move as the Tenno stepped close and slashed one, twice. Then the Tenno bent and picked up something from the floor. It laid Misa's blade beside Horatius' now free hand and stepped back, it's own blade still ready. But it...wasn't hostile? "What the hell?"

The Tenno did not respond. It sheathed it's knife and then bent down and gathered Misa's still form up. Then it turned and left without a backward glance.

"What the fuck?" Horatius demanded of no one as he grabbed the blade and started to cut the thick leather that held his ankles to the... table that sat on the edge of a protein vat. If she had killed him and dumped him in... he shivered and sawed faster. He had to check that pod. Was it his imagination the light was starting to flash?

* * *

><p><strong>Nearby<strong>

"Good shot." Two said as Quais checked her over. The arrow had grazed her warframe but not penetrated. A very good shot indeed. The robe had hidden the fact that she hadn't actually been killed. The two Tenno were five hundred meters from the hidden Corpus hideaway that had saved their children but not the adults.

"Am I ever going to be able to learn what this was about?" Quais asked sourly as he helped Two stand.

"Sure." Two said with a sigh. "We know you can keep a secret. You have worked with the Marines. Do you _want_ to know is the question? Not even everybody in our clan does. Want to know that is."

"I... see." Quais said slowly.

"We could _definitely_ use you, Quais." Two said quietly. "Aeron is off on an assassination run and I am really the only other clan member who is sneaky enough to pull off some of the craziness that silly man came up with."

"_Which_ silly man?" Quais asked as he unslung Two's Paris Prime and handed it back to her. Then he checked his own silenced Tiberon. "Nice bow."

"Thanks." Two said mildly. "Took a long time to find the parts for it, but now we have see all kinds of kin with them. Lots of Tenno going into dark places these days. We have a well stocked arsenal if you want to try anything else. And... some other information for you when you get back to the dojo."

"Maybe. I like this rifle. Tears Grineer apart." Quais sighed. "Ah well, count me in."

"Okay." Two said with a nod. "First thing you need to know... this isn't _our_ plan."

"It is _Horatius'_."


	8. Chapter 8

**Uh... what do I do ****now****?**

Horatius had no idea what he was doing. His armor had been removed carefully and laid aside. Likely the madwoman would have removed the rest of his clothing before dropping him in the vat, but he had no way of knowing. He had pulled his gear back on, leaving off his helmet. It didn't fit very well. He checked the Penta out of habit without actually touching it. Nothing seemed wrong with it, but he was loathe to touch anything the Tenno had. They gave him the absolute _creeps_.

He had a problem though. The light on the pod _was_ flashing. It was flashing yellow, which meant 'trouble' but not red for 'emergency'. Thing was... he had _no_ idea what to _do_ about it. He had done a stint as a technician a long, long time ago. He had been...sixteen? Seventeen? But that had been almost three hundred years ago! And he had worked on... Dang... He couldn't even _remember_ what he had worked on. But it hadn't been _this_. The whole reason for having a team of people was that each had skills the others did not, buffering the team members' weaknesses with other team members' strengths. Lacy had been a tech as well as a sniper. Gils had been the medic and Lacy's spotter. Ko? He had been a scrounger and armorer as well as their heavy weapons specialist. Jack had been demolitions and technical surveillance. Horatius' skills lay in planning, organizing and sneaking. Well, that and shooting things.

This? This was _way_ outside of his skillset. Every Corpus Special Forces operative had some medical training. Horatius _had_ actually helped deliver a baby once during a long and harrowing mission involving the very pregnant daughter of a high ranked executive and some lunatics who thought to use her _and_ her unborn child as 'leverage'. It had been... unpleasant and all _he_ had done was hold a _towel_ for the team medic.

This... reproduction tech was a dark art to him. He had never been one for children. Not even in his earliest recollections had Horatius ever planned on kids. Certainly not after joining the Special Forces. He had done a fast recon of the area and twenty of the small self contained pods stood around the tiny cave. It wasn't really part of the Corpus facility he had fled from. It looked... half finished? Very low tech, which explained how it had evaded the Grineer. Only one had yellow lights. And the only other thing in the small cave were the protein vat he had nearly ended up in and the table he had woken on. The only other thing he had found was a small datapad. It was unpowered, but a few moments of jury rigging with his Prova accessed it. He hoped for a medical text or a technical journal of some kind detailing the pods. It...wasn't that.

It was... a log. A log by a woman named Misa F-41. The woman who had every nearly killed him. But...

* * *

><p><em>Day 3. The pods are secure. Power systems will keep them running for a decade. The security forces bought us time to escape. But...we have seen and heard nothing from them. The filthy clones must have slaughtered everyone. These assets will be protected. We serve the Corpus and the Corpus serves us. We will protect our future.<em>

_..._

_Day 37. The constant Grineer patrols have ended. Now they are random. None of the others have returned from their explorations of the cavern and I fear for them. My leg has healed, but I fear that only I remain. But our duty to the company is clear. We must protect these company assets. The stasis pods will protect the children but they are not perfect. I must find a way to give them protein. I must. Without protein, these children will die. I must... protect these children. _

_..._

_Day 92. No further Grineer have hit the traps I set. Have they given up? No. Grineer do not give up. Perhaps they believe the area is unsafe. I have heard howling. I... am afraid. If Infested find... I must serve the Company. I must protect these assets._

_..._

_Day 178. Another Grineer patrol. Only the third this month. I have set up a makeshift freezer. It will keep the meat usable. Grineer rations taste like crap, but I can eat them. The children... need protein. The Company is not coming. They will not come. I... I fear I will die here. Alone. In the dark. The children need protein and I cannot leave them to find any more. The last clone that ran afoul of the traps has gone from the freezer into the vat and I fear what will happen now. So pretty. So innocent. These... assets must... I cannot... _

_..._

_Day... I don't know. The power has failed in my chrono. I... cannot read the letters on the screens anymore. No more meat. Cannot feed them Infested. I... I am failing in my duty. I must save... pretties..._

There were no more entries.

* * *

><p>"Oh my god..." Horatius said weakly as he set the pad down and slumped. She had done her duty. Protected her charges. Been left here. Alone in the dark. For so long. "I am sorry, Misa." He said weakly to the wall. "I am <em>so<em> sorry. We didn't know."

He slumped for a bit, the sheer horror of ht situation seeping through him. Then he snarled at himself.

"I _am_ sorry, Misa." Horatius snapped out loud. "But you _did_ your job. None of these kids have died. You did your job. Now it is time for _me_ to do _mine_."

He examined the pod with the yellow light quickly. The latch mechanism was clear and easy to understand. He was no med tech, but green almost always meant open. He tapped the green button and went still as the front of the pod slowly slid down a little. The tiny form floating in the pod jerked a little as the fluid level fell. He had no tools and only a basic med kit. But it _did_ have a towel. The fluid level fell again and Horatuis reached in as the fluid drained further and the tiny form was in his hands as he lifted it out carefully. It... _she_ wasn't breathing! He jerked, a long ago memory coming to him and gently slapped the tiny girl on the backside. She gave a gasp and then a warbling cry echoed through the cavern as the little girl gave voice to her first wail.

"Easy, little one." Horatius said quietly, rocking the form as he wrapped her in the towel. She subsided a little. "I have no idea what I am going to _feed_ you. But you are alive and I am going to keep you that way."

* * *

><p>"So... what do we do?" Quais asked very quietly as he and Two watched from the distance. The hallway they had carefully scouted had held numerous traps. Some still containing dead infested and Grineer. All were deactivated now. Two held up a hand and waved to the wall. Both of them slid back as a familiar form appeared in the distance. An Osprey. Quais had his Burston aimed but Two shook her head. Both turned to watch as the Osprey approached the cavern.<p>

* * *

><p>It was a surprise. The Company did not waste Ospreys on missing troops. Horatius stared for a long moment at the Shield Osprey that hovered close nearby, staring at him as he held the tiny girl cautiously. Then he bent down and carefully picked up his helmet and keyed his com.<p>

"Spirit here." He said quietly. "Identify." The last voice he might have expected sounded from this helmet.

"Commander." The Reverend Mother sounded relieved. "We feared for you when we lost contact. A team is five minutes out. Situation?"

"Reverend Mother?" Horatius asked, stunned. Then he shook his head. "_Help_!" He begged. "The facility...they saved their kids!"

"What?" The Clergywoman demanded. "Commander, that facility was destroyed two _years_ ago!"

"I know." Horatius said sadly as the little girl in his arms woke and started to cry. "Tell the team to hurry. Twenty womb stasis pods. Nineteen still operational. I had to pull one out! Tell me that have a _medic_!" He begged.

"Commander, that is not possible!" The Reverend Mother snapped. "The facility was destroyed. No survivors."

"Yes, there _were_." Horatius bowed his head. "A group of them managed to get the pods down here but were cut off from coms. Only one survived and she... she went mad. But she protected the children." He started to rock the little girl in his arms as she woke and started to cry. "I don't know what to do with a kid, Reverend Mother!"

"Holy Profit..." The ancient woman said in a reverent tone as she listened to the baby cry. "Stay where you are and do not draw any weapons. The team is on hair trigger."

"Please tell me there is transport available." Horatius begged "Misa F-41 died to save these kids. I... We cannot leave them here!"

"_Misa F-41?_" The old woman sounded stunned now. "That... _How_ many pods?" She demanded.

"Twenty." Horatius said as light flared in the distance. He never saw two shadows slink away as the light came closer. "Here!" He called. "Medic! I need a medic here!"

The lights resolved into a pair of MOAs with several more following. A tech with Supra at the ready was followed by half a dozen Crewmen. All froze on seeing the Special Forces soldier cradling the tiny crying bundle.

"Spirit?" The Tech asked, not lowing his Supra. "You look like you have seen better days."

"Yeah." Horatius said with sigh. "The caverns are laced with traps."

"I know." The tech said sourly. "We lost three MOAs to spring things and had two guys stuck for a bit. Odd. None of the traps seemed as dangerous as they could have been."

"She needed the meat." Horatius said quietly, rocking the girl as one of the team slung his Dera and stepped forward, a med scanner in hand. "Too much damage would have soured the meat."

"What?" The tech demanded, finally raising his Supra to port arms. He stared around the room at the many pods. "Wow... this is..." He sounded awed. "How many?"

"Twenty total. She did her duty to the Company." Horatius said as the medic indicated for Horatius to pass the child to him. Horatius did as instructed. "I think they are all alive. But... check carefully. She was... not well. She had cause, but... she was not well." He bowed his head. "One tough lady."

"Who?" Another asked as he stepped forward, binders in hand. Horatius he turned and held his hands behind him.

"Her name was Misa F-41." The Special Forces operative said sadly as he was restrained. "And she was a hero."

* * *

><p>"Will they ever find out what she did?" Quasi asked softly as he and Two ghosted away from the now buzzing cavern. "What Misa did?"<p>

"Probably better if they don't." Two replied uneasily. "When I got here... all that was here was her clothes. She had taken them off and..." She slumped. "I wish... Oh how I wish we had been sooner."

"She _had_ to have gone insane." Quais said softly. "To _willingly_ and _knowingly_ step into a _protein vat_..." To be dissolved... _alive_...

"She was out of Grineer flesh." Two said softly. "She had to keep the kids alive. It was all that was keeping her going. She held out until maybe a week before we got here. No more than that. Two _years_. _Alone. _In the_ dark_..." She bowed her head. "To protect children. As he said... a _hero_."

Quais nodded and the two Tenno retreated in silence.

* * *

><p>Horatius sat. There was nothing else he could do. The team hadn't been overly rough. But they hadn't been overly gentle either. At least all of the pods had been moved. The little girl had been whisked away early on and he hoped and prayed she was okay. But there wasn't anything he could do about it. He could get out of the restraints. They were nowhere near as hard as some. But the three guards who stood on this side of the door, two mechanical and one organic, made any escape attempt fairly pointless. Besides? He didn't want to.<p>

"You wouldn't happen to have a _book_ or something, would you?" Horatius asked dryly as the organic guard watched him warily. "Because this is boring as all get out." There was no reply. He shook his head and sat back on the bunk of the tiny cell. "Ah well... Let me see if I can remember that song..."

Everything stopped as a harsh voice sounded. Horatius knew the voice, if not the speaker. "Out." A holo appeared on one wall. Horatius tried not to gulp. Board. Had to be. Not one he knew.

"Sir." The organic guard paused as the MOAs left. "Orders are he not be left alone."

"After all of this, do you really think you and _two_ MOAs could stop him if he wanted to escape?" The Board member asked sourly. "Leave." The guard saluted and left the room. The holo turned to Horatius who remained still. "I ordered you interrogation and execution."

"Figured." Horatius said quietly. "I serve the Company."

"Indeed you do." The holo said quietly. "I rescinded those orders." Horatius froze and then went totally still as another holo appeared on the wall. The Reverend Mother looked sad and worried. "Special Forces have been a thorn in the side of the Board virtually since its creation. But the results... The results speak for themselves."

"We serve." Horatius said, bowing his head. But what happened next...

"Thank you, Commander." The Board member said quietly.

"Sir?" Commander Horatius said, snapping upright.

"You were right."The Rveerend Mother said sadly. "Misa F-41 was a hero. Search teams found the bodies of the rest of the survivors. All _three_ of them. They were trying to dig their way to the surface. Probably to find a com and report what they had done. They were not miners. They hit a gas pocket. Their armor did not protect them from the resulting explosion." Horatius slumped. "Misa F-41 was left alone. She protected the company's assets. The only way she could. We... saw your helmet logs. When she trapped you and shot you. Then she apparently kicked it and activated the recorder again."

"She was mad." Horatius said softly. "But she was trying to protect the children. Save the children. Reverend Mother... she was a hero."

"Whatever she _became_..." The Reverend Mother said softly. "She _was_ a hero. That is the official report of the team sent to salvage what they could from the cavern. There is no sign of the Tenno who killed her or her body. But..." She nodded to the other as Horatius slumped.

"She was a hero."The Board member said firmly. "I have disagreed with many of your methods, Clergy and Special Forces alike. They seem... off to me. My focus has always had to be the Company and it's profits. But now? You have given me a gift, Commander. A gift beyond measure." Horatius went still and the Board member nodded. "You will be scanned. You will be interrogated. But... for the life of my granddaughter, _yours_ is spared."

"Your _grand_-?" Horatius choked off his incredulous exclamation and nodded slowly.

"One of the beings who survived the initial assault was a med-tech named John K-45." The Board member said heavily. "He... wanted to serve the company. But he was not interested in executive power. We all hoped he would change his mind. Then I received a message that he had fallen in love with another med tech and they had obtained consent for a child. But the facility he was posted to was attacked and destroyed." Horatius frankly stared as the Board member smiled sadly. "Being med techs, they had access to every system. They were quick and careful. They even picked a caretaker."

"I don't understand, sir." Horatius said slowly.

"The caretaker's name was Misa F-41." The Board Member said quietly. Horatius froze and the Board member nodded. "The little girl you pulled out? Saved the life of when the systems of her pod were finally failing? Her name is Glenda S-13. Daughter of John K-45 and Francis Z-23."

"Granddaughter of Board Member Grodas." The Reverend Mother said with a nod. "She shows no signs of infection. Apparently, Misa F-41 hadn't gone _completely_ mad. There are no signs of the Technocyte Virus in any of the pods. She did not actually put Infested flesh into the pods."

"Thank _profit_ for that..." Horatius said with a sigh. "As bad as her dropping _me_ in there would have been..."

"Agreed." The Board Member named Grodas said with a nod. "You will be scanned." He said firmly.

"They were Orokin Marines, sir." Horatius said with a nod. "If _half_ of what the histories said about them are true..." He shrugged. "We have problems."

"Of that I have no doubt." The Baord member nodded to Horatius and vanished.

"You ready to come home, Horatius?" The Reverend Mother asked gently. "It won't be fun. But we can help. And... the other kids will need help too. The ones without a very powerful grandfather."

"I serve the Company." Horatius said, fully aware he was being monitored. But inside? He didn't care. He was too tired to care. He slid his arms out from behind him and moved to lie down on the tiny bunk provided. He was asleep before the Reverend Mother's response could reach his ears.

* * *

><p><em>We have him. That was... How? <em>_**How**__ did you __**do**__ that?_

_We did not . No one knew until I had a team scout the area he had planned to 'find' some lost tech to give to the the Board. We did not know either. You would call it a miracle. I call it a miracle. Misa __**was**__ a hero._

_She will be remembered as such._ The Reverend Mother promised. _Now?_

_Yes. Now the hard part. _The Lotus agreed heavily.


	9. Chapter 9

**For the Company**

This wasn't like him. Not at all. He was shivering as the med tech gently led him to a small room and helped him lie down. The blanket she laid over him helped, a little. But not much. The docs never wanted anything to interfere with the scans. Or so they said. He had always privately thought that the nudity was another way to break the subject's wills faster for interrogation. He didn't know. Or care.

This was hardly the first time he had gone through a mindscan. Or an interrogation. But this time? This time was worse. Somehow. The pain was the same. The aches and chills were the same. The drugs had been the same and he hadn't bothered to resist. They knew his limits to within micrometers. And besides, so what would have been the _point_? He didn't think he had anything to hide. That he knew of anyway.

"Horatius?" The voice of the Reverend Mother was concerned as...she stepped into the cell. Her real form. Not a hologram.

"How... long?" He managed to grate the words out. "Did... they get...?" The old woman sighed and stepped lose, a hand coming down to take his.

"Easy." The old woman said as she sat on the bed beside him. "It has only been five minutes, Horatius. Give yourself time." She commanded as she gave his hand a squeeze. "They are done."

"I... feel..." The hard bitten Special Forces soldier shivered harder. "That poor woman..." He was crying as he lay there. There wasn't anything else he could do.

"I know." The old nun said as she squeezed his hand again. "Your memories of the time prior to waking in the vehicle have been removed." Horatius went still and the Reverend Mother nodded. "The techniques... according to the docs anyway... seem Orokin in nature."

"But if I don't remember..." Horatius said weakly. "Did they get scans of the vehicle that was firing? The uniforms? The _weapons_?" He begged.

"Yes." The Reverend Mother reassured him. "They did. The intel people are... well..." She chuckled a bit sourly.

"Going in their _pants_?" Horatius said with a small smile that was more his normal self. The clergywoman nodded with a matching smile."Whoever or _whatever_ those people were, they came out of _nowhere_. And that _gun_ on the vehicle? It was a _plasma_ cannon. A big one."

"I know. Just the blast residue on the remnants of the facility was bad enough." The old woman said quietly. "Nothing we have that is ground based even comes close. And if it _is_ armored as heavily as it looked in your memory... a Railgun MOA's weapon may or may not be able to penetrate. Probably not. Nothing else. And even if it _could_? They are not just going to _sit_ there and let us shoot, now are they?"

"We don't want to fight them, Ma'am." Horatius said, training finally kicking in past the drugs and pain. "Not only are they bad news, but they are _human_. Possible allies in this mess." He sighed. "The Board is going to go crazy. They are going to order us to find them, aren't they?"

"They _are_ going crazy." The Reverend Mother nodded. "As bad as the mess with the DiamondBacks and Nightnova was? This is worse. Those were pilots. Threats to ships or shipping but only in one place at one time. Not actual _ground forces_ with a powerful _tank _as backup. Even fifty of them, as well trained and armed as they are, would make a massive force multiplier. And yes. They will order us to find these Marines. Make contact again."

"I don't see them helping us, Ma'am." Horatius said sadly. "They had a mission and they did it. They..." he paused. "They had someone who gave them that mission. An HQ of some kind. But finding _that_..." He shook his head. "A probably well defended needle in a Solar System sized haystack." He paused. "Did anyone ever figure out what a 'haystack' was? Something large and filled with thin things from the phrase."

"No. Ancient slang phrase of some kind about an impossible task." The old woman said with a smile as she squeezed his hand again and then let go. "One more mystery we are never likely to solve. But we have solved _one._"

"Oh?" Horatius asked and then went still as a screen lit up on one wall. A face appeared and then a body under it. Lis. But... "Wait a minute..." She wore a gown, but it wavered a bit. It was there and then she was wearing the uniform of an Orokin Marine with sergeant's stripes on the sleeve!

"The gown was an illusion. We think she was one of them." The Reverend Mother said softly. "Tasked to protect the girl."

Horatius stared at the old woman and then nodded slowly. He knew what Lis had been. There was no _way_ even an _Orokin Marine_ had done some of the things Lis had done. But... there was no way he was going to tell the Board -who had to be listening- about _that_. Special Forces were trained to evade mindscans on certain subjects and the techs knew it. If they had tried to get data on his previous missions... it wouldn't have ended well. But this.. The fix was in and he knew it. He was reassured by the Reverend Mother's wink.

"They left us a message in your mind. Or..._she_ did." The old woman said by way of explanation.

Horatius looked at the leader of the Corpus Clergy and nodded a little. The holo on the wall spoke.

"My name is Lis. I was called Lis F-43 while in care of the Corpus. I plan to let this soldier free at our next stop, but it may be a while. Unless he proves as wiley as Gen H-12 was and _escapes_. This message is intended for Executive Vina of the Corpus. Vina... Thank you for your care and consideration." The Lis on the screen said calmly. "It has come to my attention that part of my flesh was removed by the machinery that hurt me. I hereby allow Vina or any she designates to use that flesh to augment her assets. I will not seek retribution nor remuneration for damages to my person. I did my duty. No more, no less. My flesh is human. Use it as you may. To Vina, Mercedes J-54, Sister Harriet and _all_ the others who helped me, I say this: 'Thank you'. I hope and pray we never meet again, for if we _do_, it may be as adversaries. I... would not like that." She smiled a bit sadly. "Fair profit."

The holo vanished.

"She..." Horatius stammered, undone by the simple and heartfelt words. "She said..."

"Yes." The Reverend Mother said calmly. "She said 'Yes'. We got nothing else from the days you were gone. But that... _That_ was planted for us to find." She shook her head. "We may never know if you were _allowed_ to escape or not. Maybe _someday_ we can ask."

"Carefully." Horatius said with a sigh. "And not anytime soon. They won't trust me and _she_ is likely to get in trouble for doing that. Making contact this way." The clergywoman nodded and Horatius sighed again, deeper. "Where am I?"

"Vina's mining facility." The Reverend Mother said quietly. "You were out for two days in transit while they scanned you down to the molecular level." Horatius glanced at her and she shook her head . "Nothing."

"Well..." Horatius said with a sigh. "Not a bad thing. Considering what happened to the rest of my team." The old woman looked at him sidelong and he shrugged. "Yes, I know it wasn't my fault. But..."

"You were in charge." The old woman said with a nod. "You are off status for now. We are... looking into getting you a new team."

"I need to get back in shape." Horatius said with a sigh, patting his stomach through the sheet that covered him. "Getting fat." The clergywoman chuckled and he looked at her. "What?"

"The mere thought of you letting yourself get _fat_." The old woman said with laugh. "It boggles the mind. Horatius..." She said quietly. "Come home with me." The spec ops soldier froze and the old woman's face turned sad. "You have been gone... a long time."

"Rules are rules, Reverend Mother." Horatius said quietly. "I cannot sire children anymore. There is no place in a breeding colony for deadweight." He paused as her hand clenched. She went still as he covered her hand with his own. "What I... had... I treasure. But... I am not who I was."

"I know." The old woman said, her tone husky with emotion. "So many mistakes. So many things I wish I could go back and change."

"Yeah." Horatius agreed, but then he smirked. "I _would_ like to go back in time and _kick_ some sense into the Orokin idiots who thought letting the _Infested_ loose was a _good_ idea. _Morons_. Pity they are not around to pay for what they did."

"You and me both." The Reverend Mother said with a snort. "You and me _both_." She took a deep breath and stretched slowly. "I... have a request actually. Since you are off status."

"You are my boss." Horatius said with a shrug. "Since when do you have to 'request' I do anything?"

"Since we found a girl who is genetically compatible with the human... part we recovered from Lis F-43." Horatius froze at the woman's careful words. "She is not a child. We have... explained the situation in detail. She wants to help the company. Everythign is legal, but... she is..." She shook her head. "There is a problem." Horatius stiffened and the Reverend Mother was quick to reassure him. "No. Nothing wrong. Just..." She trailed off, obviously seeking words.

"So... what is the problem?" Horatius said with a frown. "Surgically, I was told it was fairly simple procedure."

"Surgically it is." The old woman looked... a bit embarrassed now. "The problem... is that has... never..." Horatius eyes went huge.

"Never,_ ever_?" Horatius asked, stunned. "Not with a boy? Not in one of the rec facilities?" The old woman shook her head and Horatius shook his. "What kind of parent lets a little girl grow up without some kind of practical education in that?"

"The kind whose little girl is injured badly in an industrial accident where she is nine and rendered sterile." The Reverend Mother said softly. Horatius sank back to the bed, stunned. "We are giving her a chance at a child. One she never dared hope for."

"More than one." Horatius said sternly. The Reverend Mother remained silent and Horatius shook his head. "You know they will want as many as she can handle."

"I do." The old woman said heavily. "So does she. She...accepts that. But... She has no experience. None. And with the latest... incident...she feels... leery about the automated systems." Horatius nodded slowly. After what Lis-43 had gone through it was a wonder _any_ women allowed the docs to put them in the automated reproduction systems. "We will monitor every aspect. We will not allow anything to go wrong."

"Things _always_ go wrong, Reverend Mother." Horatius said in a dark tone. "Or Misa F-41 wouldn't be _dead_."

"It wasn't your fault, Horatius." The old woman said gently. "She did her job. She was true to her duty to the company. Even in her madness."

"It doesn't help much." Horatius said sadly. "First my team. Then Jack... "

"You had no choice, Horatius." The old woman said, laying her hand on his again. "And you know it. If you had tried to save him, you would _both_ be dead. It is selfish of me, but I am glad you survived."

"I... I know I am emotional." Horatius said with a sigh. "Rebounding from the drugs and the pain and the fear and all. But seeing that woman. Seeing the pods. Watching her die. Then reading the log..."

"I know." The Reverend other consoled him gently. "That is why you are off status or a bit. You need time. And... You _can_ help the girl."

"Why do you need _me?_" Horatius asked, suddenly suspicious. "I mean, any lay sister can handle such explanations. It's not like girls and boys getting... together..." He broke off and paled. "No... No nononononono!" He recoiled from the Reverend Mother, his hands clutching the sheet about himself.

For her part, the Reverend Mother did not move. "Horatius..."

"You cannot ask _me_ to do _that_." Horatius said sharply. "You _cannot_!"

"Calm down, Horatius." A bite entered the old woman's voice now. "Do you really think I would make you do something like this against your will? _Me?_"

"If it furthered your interest you would." Horatius' voice held just the same amount of bite. "And you know it."

"Yeah." The old woman shrugged. "I would. But... Horatius. I am not." She held up a hand as he started to protest. "Hear me out?" The soldier subsided but he was muttering things under his breath. "She is scared, Horatius. Scared out of her mind. Her own partner is scared for her."

"She is _married?_" Horatius asked, horrified.

"No." The Reverend Mother said softly. "But she does have a partner. They are both scared, Horatius. I could order her to go to the rec center. Order her to present herself to the next male in line. Do you _really_ think I would do that?"

"Not without starting a riot." Horatius said with a snarl. The old woman just looked at him and he sighed. "Okay, yes. I admit it. You are gentle when you can be."

"Which isn't nearly often enough." The old woman said softly. "The thing is, she has accepted the role. She will return to the colony with me. We _will_ take care of her. I want you to come with her."

"Reverend Mother..." Horatius said softly. "I... I can't. You know this."

"You cannot sire children." The old woman said gently. "You _can_ help a girl through her first time." Now her face turned sad. "You helped Lilly."

"I am sorry about Lilly, Ma'am." Horatius said quietly. "I don't think I ever said that."

"My daughter denied the Enemy a powerful weapon against us." The old woman said softly. "I will miss her. The pain... will never truly fade. But I will keep trying to help keep our pitiful remnant of humanity alive. And..." She smiled gently. "If I can help an old friend recover in the process? So much the better."

"Tell me true, Reverend Mother..." Horatius said in an oddly formal tone. "Is this what is best for the company asset you speak of? Is this best for the girl?"

"You are kind, gentle and considerate when you can be." The old woman said quietly. "You do not have to be. The psychic wound that was torn in all of us when Lis F-43 was found... it must be healed. The machinery was not at fault, but many fear now. We must ease that fear. She can help. So can you."

"I..." Horatius slumped. "When?"

"When you are ready." The Reverend Mother said with a small, sad smile as she patted his hand again. She rose and moved to the door. An attendant just outside handed her a bundle of clothes that she set on the bed. "We have time."

"There is never enough time." Horatius snarled as he sat up and pulled the bundle to himself. It was a ship suit. His size, no surprise. He pulled it on. "I serve the company. But... if I find out you drugged her or influenced her... I _will_ have words with you." This was a warning that the Reverend Mother took seriously.

"I have not drugged her or influenced her." The old woman said quietly. "She wanted to serve, but could not. Now? She can. But she is scared Horatius. So very scared. She wants to trust. To feel. But she is afraid to. Much like... another we both knew." Horatius went still as tears started falling from the old woman's eyes. She could turn them on and off with a thought, but... she wasn't faking this. He knew she wasn't. Horatius sighed as he sealed the shipsuit's boots.

"I will talk to her."

* * *

><p>The room was small, but comfortable. The sole furniture in it, the bed, was firm, but also comfortable to sit on. But Horatius was not comfortable. Had he been played? Was this another of the old canny woman's machinations? She was a past mistress of such. He was...<p>

The soldier jerked to his feet as the door opened and a face he knew stepped in. She looked...scared.

"_You_?" Horatius said slowly. "It... took?"

"It did." Mercedes J-54 said weakly. She touched her abdomen. "Cloning _people_ is forbidden. Cloning _organs_? Not so much. I have... two now." She slumped a bit. "I don't _feel_ any different. But... I _am_."

"You do not have to do this." Horatius said quietly. "That is my first and most important rule. I have never demanded anything of this nature of anyone that they do not want to give. I have had to skirt that rule on missions. But I have never broken it."

"I am scared." Mercedes J-54 said quietly. "After seeing what happened to Lis F-43... I really thought she was dead. And then she bounced back... so fast... She was... an inspiration."

"Vina." He asked quietly.

"Vina is ecstatic." Mercedes J-54 said quietly. "She focuses on the facility now. But she..." The woman chuckled a bit sadly. "She is already planning a nursery. She is hoping for a girl. Me? I don't know."

"I cannot give you a child, Mercedes J-54." Horatius slumped a bit. "To many years exposed to radiation. Too many injuries."

"So I was told." Mercedes said softly. "Sister Harriet was... quite blunt about it. And..." She smiled a bit forlornly. Horatius chuckled a bit darkly.

"Yeah. I know her. Harriet can be a _bit_ profane." Horatius said as he reached out to touch Mercedes J-54's hand. "I won't hurt you. You serve the company but this... this is a big step."

"I... I know it will hurt..." Mercedes babbled a little and then clenched her mouth shut as Horatius stroked her arm gently.

"It doesn't have to." Horatius smiled gently. "But I need to know it is your choice. No one else's."

"I serve the Corpus." Mercedes said softly as her hands went to her shoulders and her gown fell away. "I serve the Clergy." Horatius went still and she smiled. "But I _want_ this." Horatius matched her smile with one of his own.

"Okay."


	10. Chapter 10

**Orphans**

Horatius was torn. His duty was to the human race, to the Clergy and then to the Corpus. In that order. But now he was doing something that he had promised himself he would never do. He was growing fond of someone. Growing _attached_. That... rarely ended well in Horatius' experience.

"No, Mike O-12." The object of Horatius worry said quietly as she pulled the offending person's hand from his mouth. "Don't suck your thumb." The tiny boy went still, and Horatius felt something inside him curl into a knot as the boy flinched back, obviously expecting harsh words or worse. But Mercedes J-54 just shook her head. "I am not going to hurt you, Mike O-12. I won't." She filled a spoon from the bowl on the table and held it out to him. "This will taste better than your _thumb_." Her gentle teasing coaxed a smile from the little one and he opened his mouth dutifully and let Mercedes J-54 put the filled spoon in his mouth. Mercedes J-54 smiled as he cleaned it off. "Good boy."

Horatius fought to remain calm. To remain still. His presence was not strictly needed. He had overseen the security arrangements for this place himself. But Mercedes J-54 said it helped her. She was... coping. It was hard for her, he could see that. But as her file said she had always done, she dealt with her own needs by helping the needs of others. And oh... _so_ many needed help.

The tiny boy in Mercedes J-54's lap was two years old. His parents had been on their way back from an extended mission mining a series of small planetoids that orbited Neptune when the Grineer had attacked. The initial attacks had been overwhelming. It had been chaos. Dozens of ships, some not so small, had been blown out of space by the clones before the fixed defenses had managed to stave off the frenzied assaults and it had settled down into what was -for all intents and purposes- a siege. An odd one. There was no way for the clones to stop all traffic. But they sure tried. Six months after the attacks had begun, the Corpus was still counting the costs. The boy's family had been one of thousands who had suddenly ceased to exist. And that left him in limbo. A limbo that others had exploited.

Mike O-12 was one of the lucky ones. The Board was not altruistic, but they had limits beyond which they would not go. Or... _could_ not go, with the Clergy watching them like hawks. Most of them anyway. Alad V's madness and Frohd Bek's cowardice mixed with bouts of near madness made things... interesting at times. A little _too_ interesting. But there were others.

One particularly unsavory under executive had jumped at the chance to swell the ranks of his workforce and had bought up the contracts of three hundred suddenly orphaned children. In the chaos, no one had noticed for a week. But then... It _had_ been noticed. Several emails had been sent to the Clergy via anonymous sources. It had been investigated. And what had been _found_...

The girls... would recover. In time. With lots of therapy and some very careful mindwipes to remove some of the worst of the memories. The executive who had _chained_ them in the MOA factory with only automated supervision was facing a full mindwipe himself. Yes, they were dexterous and learned fast, but the eldest had only been _twelve_! The youngest was Mike O-12's age. But their fate was _so_ much better than the _boys_'...

Of the hundred and thirty four boys who had been 'contracted', Mike O-12 was one of _thirteen_ survivors. Only a true madman made _kids_ work a _mine_. Not even _Vina_ had done that. They were not _capable_ of working as hard or as long as adults. But the machines that had been ordered to 'keep them working' hadn't _cared_. The _only_ reason Mike O-12 had survived was that he had been injured. His arm had been crushed in a rockfall. He hadn't been able to keep up, even when the machines had shocked him, he hadn't been able to move. So he had been left behind while almost all of the others had been worked literally to _death_. But not alone.

When a team had finally entered the mineshaft, they had found the boy, his arm in fleshy tatters, trying to get away from the mining MOA that was still commanding him to 'get up and work'. Still _shocking_ him! Small _wonder_ the team had reduced the machine to smoking shards. Small _wonder_ the boy never talked. They were working on getting a prosthesis set up for him but it was slow going. Every time he saw a MOA, he freaked. No one blamed him at all. No one. At least... he was _mostly_ sane. The others? No one said anything in Horatius' hearing, but they hadn't had to. The docs were grim. If anything, the boys who could be saved would need full mindwipes. Mike O-12 might need such. But first... they had to save those who could be. Not all _could_ be and _they_ would be eased until they passed.

"Another?" Mercedes J-54 said gently as Mike O-12 swallowed the bite. Since he wouldn't let machines tend him, Mercedes J-54 had volunteered. And since she felt better with Horatius close at hand, he had come along. But this... this was hurting Horatius. Just watching the boy struggle hurt the old and hardened special forces soldier in ways he had never been hurt. He did as he always had. Focused on his job. Mike O-12 opened his mouth again and Mercedes smiled as she filled the spoon again and gave the boy another mouthful. He was so thin. So... emaciated. They had been forced to remove his right arm at the shoulder. "Good boy." Mercedes said kindly and the boy made a noise that was part anger, part hunger, part query and _all_ scared. "You will be able to do this yourself soon, Mike O-12." Mercedes promised. "Until you _can_, we are here to help." She bowed her head, eyes glistening. "It is what we are _supposed_ to do." She gave him another spoonful.

The boy's thin hand came up and slowly, so slowly, traced Mercedes J-54's cheek. Then he gave a small sigh and wilted, almost instantly asleep. Mercedes kept her mouth shut as she lifted the boy carefully and carried him to a specially built bed. It had no visible automation, but was set up to monitor the boy and care for him. Until and unless they could find foster parents for him... he was stuck. But they would not harm him. They would help him recover. Mercedes J-54 covered the boy with the sheet and then bent down to kiss his forehead. He murmured something, but did not wake.

Mercedes J-54 was staggering as she moved towards the door and Horatius took hold of her arm to steady her. He was expecting it so he was ready when she pulled herself into his arms and collapsed, her brave front vanishing in a torrent of tears. He hefted her easily and made sure the door shut. If Mike O-12 woke, both would be notified. Mercedes opened her mouth, probably to apologize, but Horatius spoke first.

"Human greed knows no bounds." The old soldier said as he rocked the sobbing executive assistant. "But nether does human _love_. There is a chance for Mike O-12, Mercedes J-54. Do not forget that. You are helping him. Do not forget _that_."

"It is so hard." Mercedes said as she cried. "It... I know the universe isn't fair. That nothing is free. That everything has a cost... but _that_?" Horatius held her gently. "Those kids didn't deserve that!"

"No, they didn't." Horatius agreed. "The one who did this will pay. But... we have to go on. How are you feeling?"

"A bit sore." Mercedes J-54 admitted with a tiny shrug. Horatius did not speak and she snarled at him. "_My_ fault! _I_ wanted to try that. _You_ said it would hurt. I wanted it and you did what I wanted. _My_ fault."

"I am a bad influence." Horatius said quietly. Mercedes shook her head savagely and Horatius shook _his_. "Mercedes J-54... I am not a good man. I am neither nice _nor_ good. I do what I have to. If I have helped you, then that _is_ a good thing. But you cannot change me. You can only change yourself and that would be wrong. You _are_ a good person. I am not."

"You _are_ a good man." Mercedes J-54 protested as he set her back on her feet.

"You have only seen part of me." Horatius said with a shrug. "I hope and pray you never see the rest. I would scare you." No boast. Fact. "Better?" He asked as he let her stand on her own two feet.

"Yes." Mercedes J-54 said with a sigh. They had been having this not-quite-an-argument almost none stop in the three days since she had woken after her first experience filled with a boundless determination to find out _everything_ she could _about_ the experience. He had... curbed her a bit. He hadn't wanted to stay, but she was determined in a _lot_ of ways. She _was_ a good person, and she really had no idea about some things. "Poor kid, but...we will help."

"You _have_ helped." Horatius said with a nod. "It will take time and not a little effort but he _can_ recover. Establishing trust again will help. If all else fails, they can make him forget the worst of it. I hope it doesn't come to that. It hurts."

"But it can help." Mercedes J-54 nodded slowly. "We better report." Horatius nodded and moved to stand behind her and to one side. "Stop that!" She said a bit more sharply than she probably intended. "You are not my servant!"

"I am also not your equal here." Horatius said calmly. "You are Vina's partner. Her administrative assistant. I am a guard."

"Gah! You are _frustrating_!" Mercedes J-54 said with a sigh. "Are _all_ Special Forces this stubborn?"

"We have a class." Horatius was still calm. "And we have to pass with perfect scores." He startled a smile out of her and nodded. "It will be okay, Mercedes J-54. You need to decide."

"Part of me doesn't want to go." The young looking woman said with a frown. "This is... all I ever dared hope for. Finding Vina was a gift beyond measure. And now you..." She reached out to touch his face and he let her. "I... I am sorry, Horatius."

"For?" The soldier asked.

"For dithering." Mercedes J-54 said with a sigh as she let her hand drop. "If I go, I will not see Vina for some time. And you... You will not go. I may never see you again."

"I can't." Horatius said firmly. "I like you, Mercedes J-54, but I cannot be what you and the Reverend Mother want me to be. I am soldier. No more, no less."

"You may not see it." The woman said sadly. "But I do." She bowed her head. "I will tell the supervisor. As soon as Mike O-12 is stable and accepts another caregiver, I will go. I just... I don't want to. It will be _months_ before I can come back."

"At least four. Probably six." Horatius agreed. "They will not let you hurt. But they need you. We _all_ need you. You will bear the future within you. It will be... uncomfortable. But they _will_ care for you."

"I know." Mercedes J-54 took a deep breath and let it out quickly. "Come on."

Horatius stifled a grin as he followed. One thing he liked about her, well, one of _many_ things he liked about her. She made up her mind. It might take her a while to choose, but once she _did_? She _acted_. She was thoughtful and careful, but she also knew when to act. This was apparently one of those times. He followed her into the main room and through the small crowd of children who were working on things. It wasn't just busy work either. Some of the boys were working on hand-eye coordination, a must for any technical or military job. Several of the girls were working on a large puzzle that was a circuit diagram. Even as young as they were, it taught them about basic technical skills that were in high demand in the Corpus workforce. A few looked up and smiled at Mercedes J-54. Two would not meet her eyes and he could almost feel her sorrow.

The lot of an orphan had rarely been happy throughout human history. But when Vina had been distracted, the situations of orphans _here_ had been... bad. Vina and the others did what they could now, but it would take time to recover the trust that had been shattered. At least... these would recover. It was the memory of the others who were gone and would never return that was slow to fade.

Mercedes walked there the Orphanage supervisor was sitting and waited for him to acknowledge her. She might been Vina's executive assistant, but by Vina and the Reverend Mother's direct command _he_ ruled in this small abode.

"How did it go?" The man's voice was calm, but underneath lay a rage as deep as any that Horatius had ever heard. Understandable. Frank O-34 had been betrayed by the Company. Oh yes, Horatius understood that feeling. All too well.

"He ate and now is asleep." Mercedes J-54 bit her lip a little. "I don't know if he saw _me_, but he felt _someone_ kind and gentle. I hope... I hope it is _enough_."

"Sister Harriet is coming to take over his care." Frank O-34 said with a nod. "From the look on your face... You made a decision."

"You had no reason to trust." Mercedes said heavily. "Waking here... after such a horrific thing... I don't know how you do it."

"The kids need me." Frank O-34 said quietly. "I can help. I am not going to pretend I am not angry. Especially with the _latest_ influx of horror." He nodded to the room. Two of the girls had been rescued with Mike O-12. They were both sedated and it showed in their listless movements. "But I coaxed a smile out of Gina R-61."

"Really?" Mercedes smiled a bit forlornly. "You are good." She was actually appreciative. Then again, she _had_ taken over Vina's orphanage when Vina had returned. Before Frank O-34 had been brought out of stasis.

"Experience." Frank O-34 said quietly. "And it is my job."

"And it is time I did mine." Mercedes J-54 said softly. She went still as Frank O-34 rose and held out his arms. She stepped forward and gave him a hug. "I am sorry. So sorry."

"Not your fault." Frank O-34 released her quickly and sat again. "One of the first things Gen H-12, my mentor, taught me. 'You cannot save everyone'. You couldn't stop that scum, but you did what you _could_ to minimize his damage."

"Not enough." Mercedes J-54 was fighting tears now.

"It _never_ feels enough." Frank O-34 said sadly. "But you did good." He said with a smile. "And for what it is worth? I am proud to be here. To work here. Now."

"If you need anything at _all_." Mercedes promised. "Vina has pledged to me 'anything you need'. All you have to do is _ask_."

"I...didn't believe at first." Frank O-34 said with a frown. "But she _has_ changed."

"Not as much as you might think." Mercedes J-54 said with a smirk. Frank O-34 looked at her and her smirk widened. "You see... You are her responsibility now. Until that moron..." She would not say his name. No female employee on Vina's station would _ever_ say his name again. They had all sworn to _forget_ him with Vina at the head of the list. "...distracted her, she _did_ take responsibility seriously. She taught _me_ what responsibility _was_." Frank O-34's eyes went wide and Mercedes J-54 nodded. "You... and these..." She nodded to the room. "...are _her_ people now. She will _die_ before she lets anything happen to you or them. She made a mistake and she paid for it. _Many_ paid for it." She bowed her head. "She cannot ever forgive herself for that. For getting distracted. A healthy and happy workforce is a productive workforce. _You_ will help make her workforce healthy and happy. Anyone who gets in her way of making amends... Even _me_..." She shuddered dramatically. "Will _regret_ it."

"I think I can live with that." Frank O-34 said with a nod. "Go on. We have this."

"Fare thee well." Mercedes said and the supervisor's eyes went wide again as she did _not_ use the Corpus farewell. She turned and moved off, Horatius at her side. Only when they had passed the sealed and guarded doors that led into the facility's main decks did she crumple a bit. "That was... harder than I expected."

"You are a good person, Mercedes J-54." Horatius said with a smile. "So talk to Vina?"

"I um..." Mercedes paused as wall holo sprang to life. Executive Vina's face shone on it. "Ma'am?"

"I know you, Mercedes J-54." Vina said without the hint of a smile. "You are going."

"I was going to ask you to arrange transport." Mercedes J-54 said with a sigh. "I don't want to go. But my duty to the Company... I will do my duty."

"You always have, dear heart." Vina said with a sad smile. "Transport will be here tomorrow morning. For tonight? You are off duty."

"But... I had to finish the reports on the expenditures..." Mercedes J-54 trailed off as Vina glared at her. "I... Executive..."

"Commander." Vina said sharply.

"Yes, Executive Vina?" Horatius said. Why was he sensing a bubble of _delight_ in the Executive's voice?

"She needs to be relaxed for the journey." The Executive said with a snap that was totally faked. "Spa, then a _dinner_. Then have _fun_. My treat. Get _to_ it." This was a command.

"_Vina!_" Mercedes J-54 said, mortified but the holo just clicked off. "She... she can't _do_ that..."

"Didn't _you_ just say that if anyone got in the way of her making amends they would regret it?" Horatius said with a genuine smile as he steered the unresisting Mercedes J-54 towards an elevator. "I don't want her mad at _me_. And... I like that little white thing you showed me last night."

"You are... _bad_." Mercedes said with a sigh as she surrendered and let him guide her into the elevator. He hit the button marked 'spa'. "She shouldn't."

"She loves you." Horatius said as he held the now crying woman.

"And I can see why."


	11. Chapter 11

**Transfers**

"I am delaying." Mercedes J-54 said softly as she held Vina tight. The Executive had come down to see her partner off. "I... part of me doesn't want to go. Wants to stay. But..."

"We all have our duties." Vina said softly. "But know this. Whatever you choose, however you choose... You will always have a place here. A home to come back to and raise your child. I will try to keep the place going while you are gone."

Horatius was on edge. He wasn't sure why. He had been on edge since Mercedes had woken this morning. But something was bothering him. Something... off. He had actually taken time to armor up and grab weapons from a locker before escorting Mercedes J-54 down to the airlock where her ride waited. He wasn't overly pleased with the Tetra, Detron and Prova that were available, but he had made do with far less. He had checked them and they all worked. Mercedes was nearly bubbling with excitement mixed with trepidation so he hadn't shared his concerns with her. He also hadn't expected Vina to be able to get free, but he should have. The Executive defined stubborn.

Something was wrong. Horatius was sure of it. But no matter how he looked, he couldn't see anything. His weapons were not in hand, but they were close. Security was tight. Both Vina's and the transport crew. Two of Vina's guards watched her back. The automated systems were live, all four turrets scanning for threats. But...

"Ma'am." The leader of the escort who had been sent for Mercedes J-54 said softly. "We have a schedule to keep." He moved like a veteran. The four other guards looked like they knew what they were doing too. The two MOAs were essentially overkill with four Flux Rifle armed guards at the ready. "I am sorry, but we have to go."

"I expected the Reverend Mother to be here." Vina said as she released her friend. "Is she busy?"

"Yes." The leader of the escort said quietly. "I don't know what. But she told us to be on guard."

Horatius forced himself not to stiffen. That... wasn't right. The Reverend Mother wouldn't _tell_ people to be on guard. She would _expect_ them to be. All the codes checked out, but... Vina hugged Mercedes J-54 again and the younger woman smiled indulgently as the Executive cried. Horatius took a chance and activated his com.

"Reverend Mother." He said in a sub-vocal tone. "Urgent."

"Horatius?" The reply was instant. But... She sounded _sleepy_? What _the_-? "Problem?"

"Did you send a transport for Mercedes J-54?" Horatius asked softly. A gasp came from the other and he sighed. "We have a problem. Someone hacked our codes."

"Sitrep!" She snapped in his ear.

"Transport arrived." Horatius said in that same barely audible tone. Mercedes J-54 trying to calm the flustered executive covered his voice nicely. "Two MOAs, five guards. They said they were her 'escort'."

"_You_ were supposed to be her escort whenever you got off your silly _ass_." The old woman snapped and he could hear consternation beginning behind her. She was raising the alarm. "Gut feeling?"

"A snatch." Horatius said quietly. "Snatching Mercedes J-54 before she is protected in the colony. Any number of executives would _kill_ for pure human DNA."

"Vina?" The Reverend Mother said slowly. "We can't lose either of them."

"We won't. Get here fast." Horatius said firmly and then stepped to one of Vina's guards. He keyed for a private channel, blessing the closed helmet he had worn despite it's not quite right fit. "We have a problem." The guard did not react visibly, but his voice was tight when he spoke.

"What kind of problem?" The guard asked.

"That is not a Clergy transport." Horatius said firmly. "Don't move!" He snapped as the guard tensed. "If you instigate, they will kill Vina. It is probably a snatch on Mercedes J-54. Get Vina back to the door, and get her _out_! Do _not_ let her back in here no matter _what_ happens, clear?"

"Clear." The guard said and the channel cut. Then he spoke aloud. "Executive? You are needed." Vina looked at him as Horatius stepped forward. "There may be a problem with one of the air circulators."

"Oh, not _again_!" Vina said sourly, but to Horatius' relief, she gave Mercedes J-54 another hug and stepped towards the door. "Which?" She asked, her tone resigned.

"They are not sure." The guard said as he and his cohort, who must have just been brought up to speed, moved to flank her. "Either the A-43 or the G-12." Horatius tried not to groan. Those were Corpus codes for 'enemies present'. _Well known_ codes.

A bunch of things happened at once. The leader of the 'escort' cursed and reached for a pocket. One guard grabbed Vina, turning to place his armored bulk between her and the imposters as the other hit the door control. The rest of the 'escort' gawked for just a moment. Just a moment _too long_. Horatius drew. He threw himself forward as his Detron came off his hip, the weapon tracking onto the right hand MOA. Mercedes J-54 gave a squeak that turned into a scream as he slammed into her, knocking her down and his pistol roared. The MOA went down, not even sparking and he was tracking on the other as the humans went for their weapons. The security turrets... powered down!

"_Mercedes!_" Vina screamed as her guard literally _threw_ her through the door that had just opened. Both of her guard hustled out of the room as Horatius' second shot tore the second MOA to pieces moments before it's weapon could finish locking onto him.

"Stay _down!_" Horatiius grunted to Mercedes J-54 as he tracked onto a human target. The crewman was unlimbering his Flux Rifle when Horatius' shot blew half of his arm off. Then the escort leader had a weapon out. Some kind of trank gun. He gave a shrill scream that cut off as Horatius fired again. He fell, his unarmored head a smoking mess.

Then it was all fire and fury. But only for a moment before _three_ tongues of fire touched him nearly at once. Darkness roared up and grabbed him.

* * *

><p><strong>An eon or a moment later<strong>

"Leave him! We have to _go_!" A harsh voice pulled Horatius back to pain filled awareness. He couldn't move. He... couldn't see. His HUD was dark. His arm was on fire. His chest. His gut. "Grab the girl and let's get out of here! Now! The override codes won't hold the systems with them aware!"

"He killed..." A younger, angrier voice sounded.

"Go!" The first voice commanded.

"Horatius!" Mercedes J-54 was crying, screaming, cursing. "_Horatius_!" Her cries were cut off by the sound of a hatch. They had taken her!

Horatius called on his training and fought his way back to full consciousness. He hurt. Everything hurt. But he was alive. He hit his com.

"Don't let them leave! Disable their drives!" He groaned out. "I need my 'special' pack in airlock twenty six! _Now_!"

"Commander Horatius." Vina said quickly, rage and fear warring in her tone. "What is going on?"

"Not Clergy." Horatius said with a grunt as he rolled to a sitting position. "Didn't feel right... I checked... _Not_ Clergy... Black ops snatch team!"

"Black ops..." Vina cursed vilely for a moment. "What can I _do_?"

"Try to use the facility defenses to disable the ship's drives." Horatius sat for a moment, his head swimming. "They don't want her dead. They want her alive. They will have a plan to evade the sensors." The door hissed and a guard came running in, a bundle in hand. He laid it down at Horatius' feet and back away slowly. Horatius slowly lowered his pistol. "_Announce_ yourself next time, _moron_. I nearly killed you." The Special Forces operative said harshly.

"Sir, you are hit." The guard said slowly as Horatius dropped the pistol and reached for his pack.

"No _shit_, Sherlock." Horatius snapped as he started pulling stuff from his pack. The Marlock pistol that was one of his most prized possessions. A trophy _and_ an excellent weapon. The silenced Burston replaced the Tetra on his back. His own highly modified Prova replaced the standard one. The specialized helmet that took the place of the standard issue one. He rose and slid his assault harness over the spacesuit. It was... scorched in three places. The armor had diminished the beam's effectiveness, but not _stopped_ them. He was alive. "Executive Vina, do _not_ let that ship leave. If it gets far enough away, it will spoof the sensors and we will _never_ find her. Not in _time_ anyway."

"Sir, you are hit _bad_." The guard pleaded. "Let me... let me _do_ something."

"Get _out_." Horatius snapped as he moved to the airlock. "Unless you want to go 'Dutchman'." The guard stared at him and then broke and ran. Smart kid.

"Commander..." Vina sounded very upset now. "You can't..."

"If we give them time, they will either mindwipe her or impregnate her. Maybe _both_." Horatius said firmly. "If the transport tries to leave, blow it's engines off. You... know what she would want, Executive." His vision was fuzzing, and he directed his suit to administer a stimulant. It warned him in strident red letters that he was exceeding safety protocols and he overrode that with a quick flip. "I am the only chance she has. If they get desperate... you know the Board's policy." 'No negotiations with kidnappers'. He checked the screens and yes, the ship was close enough.

"I... I know." Vina was crying. "Don't die, Horatius. She loves you too."

"Oh, _I_ am not going to die today, Executive Vina." Horatius said as a familiar feeling stole over him. Power. Familiar power. The pain faded. Rage made a _hell_ of an anesthetic. "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no **evil**! FOR I AM THE _**BADDEST MOTHERFUCKER**_ IN THE WHOLE _**DAMN**_ VALLEY!"

With that, he hit the 'emergency vent' command.

* * *

><p><strong>Assault<strong>

It was crazy. It was exhilarating. It was _beyond_ stupid. And... It was the only way.

The outgassing of air from the room threw Horatius about like a ragdoll, but he had trained for such. The ship was still close. They _had_ to know what would happen if they tried to flee. Very few people tried to kidnap Corpus members anymore. It... never ended well for the kidnappers. Even if they _managed_ it, no ransoms would be paid. Tenno took captive occasionally, but never for ransom. But this wasn't a kidnapping for ransom. This was _worse_. Whatever they wanted Mercedes J-54 for, it wouldn't be good. The only thing that Horatius and Vina had going for them was that if the team who had taken her had wanted Mercedes J-54 _dead_, they could have killed her easily anytime. They wanted her _alive_. Probably for her ability to bear children.

Not necessarily _sane_, but alive. Women didn't need to be sane to bear children after all. The machinery would do it all. Who cared what it would do to the woman's mental state even if her snatch hadn't driven her crazy?

Horatius cared. He shouldn't. But he did.

He flew through space. His assault harness provided limited ability to correct his course, but he would use it sparingly. It also augmented his shields significantly. His specially modified helmet _looked_ like normal Corpus issue. It was anything _but_. His HUD picked out the ship's hatch as he flew towards it and he turned, setting himself as the hull grew in his view.

Then he hit. The pain was an old friend. He rode the pain, his anger fanning further and further. He had taught himself early on _how_ to hate and _when_. It was one of his best kept secrets. His magnetic boots activated and he took a quick step towards the airlock he could see nearby. Then another. Then he was at the airlock.

Corpus codes were standardized. But... there were number of sensors at any airlock that would allow any crew to know instantly that the airlock had been opened. That was fairly important on a spacecraft after all. Even Grineer would want to know when an airlock had been accessed. Tenno did not use airlocks until their missions were done. Horatius was not Tenno. But he didn't _need_ to be.

A quick override code, one that was hard wired into every single airlock built by the Corpus and the outer hatch opened with no difficulty. Corpus Special Forces and Clergy operatives often needed access to Corpus ships under less than ideal circumstances. So, he knew the hardwired accesses. And... since he knew this kind of transport... He knew where to go. As soon as the airlock equalized and the inner hatch opened, he was gone.

The largest Corpus black ops team that Horatius had ever seen had been ten people strong. This...wasn't black ops. He encountered his first opponents before he had gone one corridor from the airlock. They...were not alert. The patrol had no idea he was there until four quick bursts from his silenced Burston, fired fast enough to be almost non-stop, had them all down. He didn't have time to be gentle or subtle. Not that he would have anyway. None of his targets would be able to sound an alarm. Not the two MOAs, not the two crewmen. Not with their helmets -and what was under them- blown away. He found a small room with a terminal and hacked in, using more Clergy codes. He accessed the security feeds. Lots of crew. Lots of them, but... few armed. Then his guts froze. Mercedes was being laid in a pod of some kind by two of the men from the 'escort'. She looked... still. Life readings, so she wasn't dead. But... He snarled as one of the men produced a large pair of shears and started to cut her garment off. Another was...shaving her head. Several MOAs stood around protectively.

A red light appeared. Someone was using the com. He keyed to listen. What he heard...was not what he expected.

"What the _hell_ is going on?" A loud voice snapped. "What did you _do_?" The female voice...was not familiar. But it had to be the officer in charge of the transport. She sounded... _terrified_.

"We have to get out of here!" _That_ voice was one he knew. The harsh voice from the bogus 'escort' team. "Get us away from the facility!"

"They have us locked up! If I _try_, they will blow us out of _space_. What did you _do_?" She demanded again. "They are demanding to _board!_"

"Need to know, navigator and you do _not_." The other snapped right back. "Get us clear and get us power to the portal generator."

Portal? Horatius went still. They had a _portal generator_ aboard? Then he kicked himself. Of _course_ they did. And the crew were decoys. Probably hired. Easy to throw away. He keyed the com. He barely recognized his own voice.

"Once chance." Everything went still over the com. On the vid, all of the black ops froze for a moment, then went back to their tasks. "Drop your weapons and _live_. Power up and the facility blows the engines off this tub. You are _not_ getting away with her. Give it up and I won't _kill_ _every last one of you_." He was lying. He knew he was. He wanted to kill them all. But not quickly. He wanted them _screaming_.

"_What the FUCK did you DO_?" The navigator screamed. There was no response. "Whoever... whatever... I surrender... _please_..." She begged. "They hired us... they didn't _say_..."

"_Where_?" Horatius snarled.

"Section 12-A." The navigator said, her tone abject. "Five of them, four MOAs. One... medical MOA... I..."

"Contact the facility. Tell Vina you _surrender_. Do it _now_." Horatius said firmly. "Oh, and you _better_ clear the area around that section. Because I have no _time_ to be nice." A babbled response came from the com, but Horatius was gone. 12-A wasn't far.

The hatch was sealed of course. He had charges that would burn through. But what would be the point? It would take time. Time that Mercedes J-54 did not have. He shot the security camera out of reflex and moved to the side. A quick jump had him at an air vent that he hit with the stock of his rifle. It fell apart. Then he was in the vent. He paused at the next one.

"Sir?" One of the other voices that Horatius remembered asked. Young and scared.

"Get the drip started. We can power the portal up enough for one, send her through." The voice of what had to be the team leader said harshly. A murmur sounded and the black ops man snarled. "We are not getting away! That Special Forces moron screwed everything up. But we can accomplish our mission. Status?"

"She is stable." A pain filled voice. Horatius had hurt him. Bad? "Sir... Orders are orders... but..."

"Do it." The leader snapped. "Wipe her." Horatius heard another snarl. _His_ voice. "Oh _**shit**_!"

What happened next seemed to be in slow motion. A kick threw the remnants of the air vent cover into the room. A tiny device followed it. Even as the MOAs were turning to face the vent, the highly illegal EMP grenade went off and all _five_ of them suddenly went limp. It also, coincidentally, killed the lights and shorted out any non shielded HUDS. Horatius could see. No one else could for a moment. And a _moment_ was all he needed. His Burston was tracking targets. They were not people. They were _targets_. His objective lay on the floor. Out of the line of fire. He was in the room and sliding to the side before the first panicked fire came from one of the goons. In comparison, Horatius was ice cold as he tracked on the one who seemed in charge and two quick bursts tore the man's legs off.

They returned fire, but _they_ couldn't see him. He _could_ see them. It was over in moments. The only survivors besides Horatius and Mercedes J-54 were the enemy team commander who was moaning as he clutched the stumps of his legs and an unarmed ashen faced man in a medical tunic. His arm was covered in a radiation dressing. The medic raised empty hands.

"They have my family!" The man begged as he knelt. "I... had no choice..."

"You know they are already dead. No witnesses." Horatius said softly. A com chime and he spoke. "Yes?"

"Spirit, this is Vina Team Sixteen! Approaching your position with medical support!" The voice was one he knew. A good man, that guard. "Check fire, check fire!"

"One enemy combatant prisoner." Horatius said quietly. "One... unknown." He glanced at Mercedes and his heart lightened a little as he saw her chest rose and fall. "Target secured. I say again, target secured."

The hatch hissed open and Horatius turned his rifle muzzle away from the team of Vina's guards who came bustling in, weapons at the ready.

"Sir..." The guard leader sounded shocked, staring at the carnage and at Horatius who...finally let go of his rage.

He never felt the floor.


	12. Chapter 12

**Questions**

It was...familiar. He was aware. But not. He was conscious. But not. He was not where he had been. A series of noises around him told him where he was. A medical ward. He grunted as pain lanced through him. Rage rose again.

"Easy, soldier..." A voice he sort of recognized spoke from nearby. "We have to get the armor off..."

"Get _away_ from him, doctor!" A familiar scared voice cut through the hubbub of the medical ward like a knife. "_Now!_" Her knew her. She was... no. Not a friend. But... A colleague? A... compatriot? No. That wasn't right either. He... wasn't thinking clearly. Something touched him. "No!"

"Ma'am!" The voice of the doctor said sharply. "We have to get the burnt armor off!" Then a scream sounded as Horatius moved. Something went 'snap' and he was off the table and on his feet. Five forms in medical garments stood close at hand, one now clutching a wrist that was bent the wrong direction. Two guards stood by a door, but both stood as if terrified.

"_Everyone!_ **_Freeze_**!" The old female voice commanded and Horatius turned to see a familiar form. The Reverend Mother looked like hell. Her face was angry, but...also scared. "Horatius... Come back to us. It's okay. Mission accomplished, soldier." The rage... faded a little. He could think.

"No, it's not." Horatius said quietly. "They dosed her."

"You were in time." The old nun said softly, raising empty hands. "Horatius... You were in _time_. They sedated her. No more. They were prepping her for a mindwipe. You _stopped_ them. And we have prisoners. Well done, Horatius. We will find out who sent them."

"I..." Horatius slumped a bit. "I need to..."

"Horatius..." The old woman took a slow step closer. "You are hurt. Your implants can keep you going for a little while. But you need help."

"Don't..." Horatius swallowed hard. "Don't let her see me like this..."

"I won't." The Reverend Mother said sadly as she reached out with a slow hand and brushed his cheek. "Sleep my friend." Horatius... nodded and the music that he had denied for so long swelled louder in his mind. It...carried him into oblivion.

* * *

><p>"Holy profit..." Vina was not crying now. She had been. "I... I thought I knew..."<p>

"Yeah." The Reverend Mother maintained the touch on Horatius' brow while the docs worked to remove the burnt armor from his still form. "Don't jostle me." She warned the nurses who were moving warily. "If he wakes again... in pain... I don't know if I can stop him again."

"Yes Ma'am." The head doctor said warily. Well, he was the head doc now that the first doc had been taken to have her _wrist_ set. "Not long. We can... _Holy profit_..." He said, staring at his screen. "_How_ much of him is augmented?"

"You saw _nothing_." The Reverend Mother's power sang around the room. "He is full human. Treat him as human."

"We saw nothing." Vina's eyes went huge as every mouth in the room but _hers_ spoke in unison. "We will treat him as full human."

It didn't take long until the doc had the armor off. A few injections and the Reverend Mother cautiously withdrew her hand. Horatius slept on and she let out a sigh of relief. She slumped a bit and nodded to the docs.

"He will sleep now. Not his fault. It's the training, you see. The training and the augmentation. He will want to apologize when he wakes." She said sadly. "It was reflex for him. Not...conscious." She shook her head. "He was a good man..."

"What should we do when he wakes?" The doc who has spoken asked as he worked on the human shape.

"He will wake upset." The old nun said softly. "Keep everyone away. He _will_ yank out the tubes. Yank off the wires. _Do not_ try to stop him. He won't hurt anyone when he is fully aware, but..." She shook her head. "Put him in a room with nothing breakable. He will find a way to break _something_ anyway. He always _does_." Fond, exasperated sadness sang in her voice as she turned to where Vina stood, staring. She jerked her head and the Executive followed her into another room. One where Mercedes lay sleeping. The old nun's face hardened on seeing the woman's shaved head. "Do you have a wig? She will feel the violation. But if we can minimize it until we can regen her hair... It will help."

"I... can have something made quickly." Vina said weakly. She tapped some keys and nodded. "Working. The... they were going to..."

"Mindwipe her." The old woman said quietly. "Yes."

"I... I couldn't _do_ anything." Vina was babbling a little and the old woman pulled her close. Vina's tears let loose. "All I could do was _watch_... They wouldn't let me _do_ anything else... I thought he was _dead_. Then he _got up_ and..." She shuddered.

"It is what he does." The Reverend Mother said sadly. "What he has done ever since he left the colony. I knew he would be gentle with her. I had hoped she could help _him_. But... he won't let her in. Not completely."

"I don't understand." Vina said, her sobs coming through strong. "He... He was kind to her. Gentle. She said he was...amazing."

"He is." The Reverend Mother stroked Vina's head, calming, soothing. "He was... so good at instructing the girls. The ones who had no experience for whatever reason. I was too strict with my _own_ daughter. I... didn't realize. Too many other demands on my time. He jerked me up short." She chuckled a bit wetly. "He was... rather rude. But he was _right_. She was... so much better. After. Mercedes J-54 will live, Vina. Hold to that."

"You are going to take her, aren't you?" Vina said after a moment. She calmed herself and stepped back. A beep sounded and she went to a wall dispenser. She pulled a mass from it and handed it to the Reverend Mother who nodded. It was Mercedes J-54's hair color.

"Yes. She will wake in a few minutes." The older woman nodded. "Horatius is going to go after the people who did this. I do not want her to be here when he wakes. She will be stressed enough. We will ease her into her new role." She smiled a bit gently. "And yes. I think we can swing a girl for you."

"What _I_ want is not important." Vina said savagely. "Take care of _her_. She is not just a priceless asset for the company. She is a _friend_." A moan sounded from the bed and both women turned to see Mercedes J-54 open her eyes. "Mercedes J-54?" Vina asked, hesitant.

"What happened?" Mercedes J-54 asked softly. "It... I was in the airlock. You were crying... I... Horatius hit me... But then... people were shooting... He... He..." Vina and the Reverend Mother both moved to her side, each woman taking a hand. She did not notice as the Reverend Mother settled the wig on her head with the other.

"He is alive. He fought his way to you, saved you, Mercedes." The old nun said quietly. Both other woman stared at her and the Reverend Mother sighed. "That is your name now. Your _old_ life has ended. A _new_ one has begun. We have executive assistants by the _thousand_s, Mercedes. We only have _one_ _**you**_."

"But..." Mercedes slumped a bit. "I saw him _fall_. He was still. So still. He was.. how could he _fight_...?"

"He is Special Forces, Mercedes." The old woman said with a sigh as she sat on the bed, pulling the now crying girl into a loose embrace. "It is what he _does_. Vina, step back." She commanded as she put a hand inside her robes. Vina paused and then pulled Mercedes hand up to her mouth and gave it a kiss.

"Come back to me, dear heart." Vina said as she laid the hand she had just kissed back in Mercedes lap. "I will be waiting."

Mercedes gave a small smile as she and the Reverend Mother both vanished in a haze of golden energy. Vina slumped a bit, staring at where they had been. Then she turned on her heel and strode form the room, her posture going straight. Her guards -_four_ now- formed up beside her as she strode to another room. As the door opened, screams were heard. Her face was expressionless as she entered the room where two humans lay strapped to tables while machines scoured their brains for every ounce of information they had.

"Report." Her ice cold voice might have given a Tenno pause.

"The doctor is a pawn." Sister Harriet said from where she stood, working the machinery. Her own face was set. "We checked. His family were all found dead a day ago. A 'skimmer accident'." The sarcasm in the last words could have cut steel.

"Salvageable?" Vina said sternly.

"We went deep." Harriet had no emotion in her voice now. "But I think so. He will need retraining. But not as much as some of the kids."

"The other?" Vina glanced at the one with no legs.

"Black ops. Team leader." Harriet confirmed. "The triggers are known. I have worked around some of the blocks. He was working for a subordinate of Board Member Bek..." She raised a hand as Vina inhaled. "I don't think Bek did this. He would _know_ better. He knows what Horatius _is_." She chuckled, an odd sound in chamber that still resounded with screams weakening as they were. "If _he_ had been the one, he would have sent a _lot_ more than _five_ and some _MOAs_."

"Okay." Vina said with a sigh. "What do we know?"

"They were ordered to grab her like we thought. " Harriet said with a nod. "Nonlethal, but they were to do a mindwipe as soon as possible. The medical MOA was set up for one. The idea was to use the portal we found to transit to an unused storage facility near Pluto. Then they were going to transit somewhere else. Everyone else on the ship was disposable. Decoys."

"Any idea where?" Vina asked and Harriet shook her head. "But _he_ knows." It wasn't a question but the lay sister nodded anyway. "Can you break through?"

"I _can_." Harriet said with a sigh. "It will take time. And I _do_ know of a faster method..." She glanced at the door.

"What?" Vina paused as the hardened Clergy lay sister actually grimaced. "Oh... _He_ can?"

"I... read a report of him breaking a Black Ops mental block to get information once." Harriet said with a gulp. "It...wasn't pretty."

"What they were going to do to Mercedes J..." She paused. "No... To _Mercedes_..." She corrected herself carefully. "...wasn't _pretty_. What will he need?"

"From the _report_?" Harriet actually looked bit green. "A spoon and a heat source."

Vina stared at her and despite everything, _she_ felt queasy.

* * *

><p>Mercedes was reeling. The transit had been... jarring to say the least. But the old woman's grip on her arm never faltered. So many shocks. So quickly. She... was in love with Horatius. She knew that. She was attracted to him. What woman <em>wouldn't<em> be? Talk, dark, dangerous... _**and**_... Kind, gentle and with the most _amazing_ hands... She shivered.

"Easy, Mercedes." The Reverend Mother said gently. "You are in shock. It's been a bad day." She spoke louder. "I need a chair! Did they send the report?"

"They did." A tight female voice sounded as Mercedes felt something behind her knees and hands were easing her down into something. It was... very comfortable. Mercedes looked to find the speaker and she paused as she saw a violet hulled MOA. "Hello Mercedes." The MOA said gently. "My name is Sheila. I am here to help."

"Um... Hello Sheila." Mercedes said as someone laid a blanket over her. "I... I don't know what to do."

"Ordinarily, we have a meet and greet. You meet the staff, and any of the others who want to be social. Usually around a meal." The MOA said calmly. "Not everyone is. Social that is. You don't have to be if you do not want to. We are here to help _you_. Make _your_ life easier. Because what you are doing will be hard."

"I... thought you would just... stick me in a machine..." Mercedes wanted to pull the words back as soon as she spoke them, but the MOA... _laughed_. "What?"

"Do you have _**any**_ idea what the Reverend Mother would do to us if we acted like _that_?" Sheila fought through her chuckles. "No, we will not just 'stick you in a machine'. You are confused. You are stressed. You were scared out of your _mind_. We can help." The kindness from a _MOA_ was too much and Mercedes felt tears start to fall. "Ah my dear..." Sheila said sadly. "It's okay. You are okay. Jeselle?"

A young woman stepped into Mercedes' view, a cloth in hand. She held it out to Mercedes who took it and wiped her face. She shook her head when Mercedes would have handed it back.

"Keep it." The young woman's voice held old sorrow, but her eyes were alight with curiosity and compassion. "I will have your meal sent to the room."

"No." Mercedes said. The girl and MOA both looked at her. "They wanted me afraid. They wanted me powerless. I will not be. Where is this 'meet and greet' of yours?" The girl looked at the MOA and the robot that wasn't one seemed to shrug.

"If you start feeling bad, say my name." Sheila said quietly. "I am on duty at all hours. Unlike puny _human_ nurses, I can keep up."

"Don't forget your _own_ downtime, Sheila." The Reverend Mother said severely from nearby. "If I find you reading again when you _should_ be sleeping, I _will_ make you clean the visitor's bathrooms again."

"No, Reverend Mother!" Sheila begged in a comical voice. "_Anything_ but _that_!"

Mercedes laughed and that laugh seemed to start her on something. A long road. But a worthwhile one.

* * *

><p><em><strong>What<strong>__?_ The Lotus sounded upset and the Reverend Mother could relate. _Is __**she**__ all right? Is __**he**__?_

_Mercedes is scared and bruised but no more. He didn't give them time. _The Reverend Mother said softly. _Horatius is... what he is. I tried._ She said weakly. _I tried._

_I... I am sorry. _Of all the thing the Reverend Mother might have expected to hear from one of her greatest adversaries... _They did a __**bunch**__ of scans. They know who he is. **What** he is. They are **pissed**._

_Yeah. So am __**I**__._ The Reverend Mother said with a sigh. _Anyway... he will get the information once he wakes up. As soon as he does, he will gather a team and strike hard and fast. I __**still**__ think this whole thing has Bek's fingerprints all over it._

_He is the prime suspect. _The Lotus said quietly. _Maybe __**too**__ obvious though. He would know not to try that._

_The last time he angered Horatius was educational enough. _The old nun agreed severely. _Two stations and four ships._ _Even a Tenno strike force would have difficulty matching Horatius when he gets __**really**__ angry. Against Company forces anyway. Against Grineer or Infested? Tenno would win, hands down. He has said that more than few times himself._

_So what now?_ The Lotus asked. _Will you search the storage unit? We can drop the DNA samples there._

_No. _The Reverend Mother said sadly. _As much as I might wish for it to be that easy, whoever the was supposed to meet will not have left such traces. It would be an immediate red flag for anyone with even a modicum of brains. We have to find the main lab. And with them dark? _She sighed. _Any news on your end?_

_Not for this. _ The Lotus said calmly and the Reverend Mother nodded even though the other could not see her. She knew the Lotus wasn't -really- an ally. They had the same ultimate goals. Preserve humanity. Defeat the Grineer. Beyond that? _One thing... I may not be able to keep it quiet._

_Do what you can, please?_ The Reverend Mother did not like begging. But... _If __**he**__ finds out... we haven't __**seen**__ a mess yet._

_He is going to learn. _Both mental presences went still as a **third** mind made itself felt._ I cannot interfere much, but I can keep you two from doing anything too bad. And yes, it would be... bad._

_JANET?_ The Reverend Mother shook herself _No... No, say no more! The less I know, the __**better**__!_

_I can help. A little. _The mind of what had been one of her best agents and was now far, far more said sadly. _I will talk to him. But you __**better**__ find that lab. Fast. _Then, like waft of dream, she was gone.

_It is getting... crowded in here..._ The Reverend Mother said with a gulp that the Lotus matched. _Horatius will get the information. Then he will move._

_We will be ready. _

**Somewhere**

"We need to talk." Janet was not looking forward to this. The other nodded. "About Dustin."

"Dustin?" Nikis -grandmaster gunfighter of the Tenno- sighed as he knelt slowly. When one was invited to the innermost sanctum of the Oracles of Saturn, one did _not_ lapse in protocol. They had enough concentrated power to hurt him, badly. Not that any of them wished to. It would hurt them _worse_. But no one wanted to fight. Not here. Not now. "What do you need to know?"

An important distinction. He knew the Oracle rarely _wanted_ to know things. If she asked about such a sensitive subject, she _needed_ to know.

Janet could not move from her gel filled pool. Machines fed her, took care of her wastes and aided her breathing. The docs promised that she would recover. She _had_ seen some improvement. She could move her hand now and it flattened, beckoning Nikis close.

"We need to do this virtual, Nikis." Janet said sadly. "And not _me_. _You_... need to know what I do. And it _**will**_ piss you off. But if you find out and we didn't tell you... it would piss you off _worse_."

"I won't hurt you, Janet." Nikis said with hurt in his voice as he reached for her hand to pull her into a virtual world.

"I know. It is not _me_ I am worried about." She took a deep breath as the world shifted to a comfortable room where she sat on the bed and pulled the Nekros close. Then she started to explain.

It was a good _thing_ the room was virtual. Titan was mostly seas and they would have resounded with the Tenno's scream of rage for _weeks_.


	13. Chapter 13

**Families**

It was done.

Horatius stepped away from the broken, sobbing _thing_ on the table and nodded to the MOA nearby. The large device on it hummed and Horatius looked away as a gob of plasma flew from weapon to impact the man strapped to the table. What _had_ been a man vanished. The top of the table was shielded, but the plasma was overkill. Not that he minded. He _wanted_ overkill right now. He _so_ wanted it.

The soldier shook himself. Undirected anger was for amateurs. Focused rage helped, on occasion. Especially when he was solo against large numbers of bad guys. But right now? It was a hindrance and he would not allow that. His voice was calm when he spoke.

"Sterile protocols. This did not happen." He turned and left the room, knowing that every trace of the black ops man... Every...bit that he had carved off with the heated eating utensil... would be gone by the time he came back. _If_ he did. As he walked, he keyed his com. "Training facility. Commander Horatius here. What is the status of the personnel?"

"Nominal for the three we have here." The immediate reply came. He liked Violet. She was all business. For someone who liked Grineer weapons anyway. She had quite a collection. All taken from dead Grineer and repurposed for her own use. Everything from pistols to incendiary rocket launchers. "What do you have, boss?"

"A shitstorm about to hit." Horatius said with a sigh. "Get as many full personnel as you can find and get here within the next five hours. We _will_ need them."

"Oh." For once, Violet sounded subdued. "I see. On it. One thing...we have an... oddity in the recruit lineup."

"Violet." Horatius said with another sigh. "You _know_ I feel about you using that word. What _kind_ of 'oddity'?" He asked, exasperated. But he _did_ hurry his steps.

"The sole girl in the group is good. All of her test scores are good or excellent." Violet said quietly. "But... if _she_ is nineteen, _I_ am Chairman of the Board."

"How old?" He asked as he entered an elevator. A few people who had been waiting for it moved aside as he entered it. A scary reputation helped on occasion.

"I would say... fifteen? Sixteen?" She said, somewhat dubious. "Her file says she is nineteen, but it has been hacked. _Well_ hacked. It held up to several levels of scrutiny. It took eyeballs on her to realize she wasn't of age."

"Hmmm..." Horatius said as he waited for the elevator to get where it was going. It only _seemed_ to take forever. "Any computer people available?"

"Cass is working on some stuff. Boss..." Violet said slowly. "If she _is_ just a kid..."

"Violet!" Horatius snapped. "You know me better than _that_! I am _not_ going to throw her into a firefight with no training or augmentation. I am not the _Board_." Hate sang in his voice for a moment and he worked to tamp it down. "But if she is good enough to hack our systems... Let me talk to her. Room 3." The elevator opened and he started for that room, one of few in the training area that was set up for people to sit and talk comfortably. Well, sort of comfortably.

"Okay." Violet sounded relieved. "I know I am bit... off. But those kids..." She had been part of the team that had gone in to rescue Mike O-12 and the others. What she had seen in that place would have rattled _anyone_.

"If there was _any_ justice in the system, I would get you a vacation." Horatius said with sigh. "Best we could do was a training billet. But then... this. I hope I don't need you." She was good. A born sneak and good with explosives of any kind. Aside for her odd fetish for Grineer weapons, she was a good troop. But if she was still shaken...

"If you do, I am here." Violet promised. He knew she would do her best. She didn't know how to do anything else. "The name in the file is Abigail B-6. Probably an alias."

"Oh, come _on_ Violet!" Horatius actually sounded stern, but he was smiling. "Who could _possibly_ want to join Special Forces to _hide_?" He asked snidely.

She barked a laugh. _She_ had. Property whose title had been in dispute had found its way into her residence on several occasions and Internal Security had been closing in on her despite loud protests of innocence. Thing was? She was scrupulously honest now. She accounted for every penny that was her responsibility. He wasn't sure if she had actually been a thief or just in the wrong place at the wrong time and run when the Security guys had come knocking. It didn't matter. She was his teammate now. _That_ was all that mattered. Security could take a flying leap out an _airlock_.

"She is on the way." Violet said quietly after a moment. "I have... um... six that are close, but two are on assignment. Pull them off?"

"Let's see what we can see first." Horatius said as he entered the room. "Have Cass bring her stuff."

Room 3 was spartan to the extreme. A dozen uncomfortable chairs sat around a flimsy looking table. The only concession to high tech was a holo projector that retracted into the ceiling. It was well out of most people's reach. It was no accident that the room's furniture was uncomfortable. It was designed to be easy to replace, not comfortable. Fights were very common in Special Forces briefings. They didn't want anything handy that would actually harm people if applied to a skull repeatedly. And they didn't want to replace anything too expensive that frequently. Special Forces had a large budget, but it was never enough.

He did not sit. He stood by one wall, waiting. He didn't have to wait long. His eyes narrowed as a _very_ young looking woman stepped into the room, her face a mask.

"Sit." He indicated a chair and she looked at him. "It isn't rigged."

This time anyway. He hadn't had time. Special Forces training was unending. Any mistake could and would get you killed. Noisemakers in seats were usually followed by a round of PT with more stringent exercises for any who missed the infantile traps. The idea wasn't to kill people, but to make them think. To plan for the unexpected.

"Begging your pardon, sir." The young woman said diffidently as she knelt to examine the chair and nodded before sitting.

"Okay." Horatius said mildly as he stepped to block the door. "Name and age." The girl stiffened and Horatius chuckled darkly. "Very well done. But you are hardly the _first_ to hack our recruiters' files." The girl went totally still, her hands edging to her side and Horatius sighed. "Now don't be stupid, girl." He said harshly. "I don't _care_ why you ran. I don't _care_ who is chasing you." She stared at him, dumfounded and he shrugged. "We get a _lot_ of that. Name and age."

"Mina Y-45." She slumped. "I am fifteen." She sounded tired now. Horatius did not speak and she sighed. "I didn't mean to."

"Look." Horatius said quietly. "You are good. I get that. But you are _too_ _young_. You don't have the strength or stamina to get through the training. You haven't finished _growing!_ We can't _augment_ you. You are wasting _your_ time and _ours_."

"If I go back..." Mina Y-45 looked terrified now. "They think I did it on purpose! They will execute me without letting me _explain_! I didn't mean to!"

"Didn't mean to do _what_?" Horatius asked carefully. "Who did you kill?"

"Nobody!" Mina Y-45 said sharply. "Or... I don't think I did... I didn't mean to. It was a tight system, a challenge! I didn't know..." The door hissed behind Horatius and he moved a little to let one of the trainers in. He held a small pack that the girl looked at and slumped. "I didn't mean to."

"What did you do?" Horatius asked quietly as Cass moved to one side. The other Special Forces trooper wasn't armed, but then again, he didn't _need_ weapons to be lethal. Mina Y-45 slumped further and Horatius sighed deeper. "Look, girl... We might be able to help. If you are straight with us. Cass?"

"Good clean hacks, boss." The tech specialist said with a nod. "Nothing popped until Violet saw her." Mina Y-45 cringed and Cass shook his head. "Spoofing cameras isn't that hard, girl. Spoofing eyeballs is a _lot_ harder."

"I didn't know anywhere else to go." Mina Y-45 said in a monotone. "You hear stories, you know?" Neither of the males spoke and she sighed. "I saw the network entry and I didn't know what it was. I thought it was military. But I had no idea."

"You hacked a military system?" Horatius looked at Cass who pursed his lips. "What was it?"

"I don't know." Mina Y-45 said weakly. "Something called a JX-RV-43K." At _that_, Cass went totally still. Horatius looked at him and Cass spoke slowly and carefully.

"_You_ hacked the JX?" Cass said, sounding stunned. "How far in did you _get_?"

"I..." The girl was going to fall out of the chair if she slumped any further. "All the way." She went still as Cass whistled. Horatius stared at the tech and he seemed awed. "I didn't even see what it _was_. As soon as I got _in_, my system locked up. Security was coming... I... I ran..."

"Straight to the recruiter." Horatius said softly and she nodded. "Cass?"

"The JX-RV-43K is the sensor grid network nexus, Boss." Horatius looked puzzled and Cass made a face. "For _all_ of Neptune." At that, Horatius' eyes went huge. Talk about _secure!_ "Yeah. I heard about an alert. They thought it was Alad V. Three days ago?" Mina Y-45 nodded. "Oh boy, boss. If she can do _that_? At _fifteen_?" Cass said with glee. "We _need_ her!"

"Okay." Horatius said with a nod. "Your name is Abigail." He said to the girl who stared at him with wide eyes. "You will work with Cass to set up a proper identity with all the needed information. We have lots of rules but the _big_ one is _this_. Do not lie to _us_. Anyone else, feel _free_. But not _us_. _We_ are _all_ that we have. If you treat us right, we will treat you right. We will give you challenges that will _boggle_ your mind. You will see things and do things that _bother_ you. You may get hurt or _worse_. It comes with the job."

"But..." The girl said, unsure. "You said..." She broke off as Cass chuckled.

"Girl... Abigail..." The tech said quietly. "_Anyone_ who can hack the JX _without_ military training is an asset we _need_. We want you before anyone _else_ gets you. We _certainly_ don't want Security to _execute_ you. Waste of _talent_."

"We are going to put you through a wringer, Abigail." Horatius said quietly. "If you are a plant of some kind, you will disappear. It has been done. And with younger people." Abigail stared at him, her eyes going even wider as impossible as that seemed. "But... you don't seem the sort. You won't be combat personnel. We always need more tech support. We can't trust anyone else's."

"I..." Abigail swallowed hard and nodded. "What do I do?"

"Come with me." Horatius turned to the door as the girl rose and moved to follow. "Cass? You know what to do."

"Right." Cass said with a nod. "Full background files coming right up." He smiled at the girl as she stared at him. "We get all kinds, Abigail. As long as you don't lie? You will do fine." He stepped out and was gone.

"What do I do?" Abigail asked in a monotone.

"We go talk to Sister Harriet." Horatius said with a nod. "Com on." He snapped as he walked. The girl hurried to keep up and kept her mouth shut. "Vina? It's a lab in the Outer Terminus. It was a subordinate of Bek's who gave him the orders but he didn't think Bek knew or condoned it. The orders were legit." Abigail's eyes went huge again, but she did not speak as he moved to an elevator and waited for her to follow. "I have the coordinates." He hit the control as soon as she was in.

"What do you need?" Vina's calm voice was a facade. She was angry. Almost as angry as Horatius himself was. He hated it when he had to fight Company. It happened way too often these days.

"The less you know about what I will do, the better." Horatius said calmly. "For right now? I have a recruit for Harriet to vet. Is she busy?"

"No." Vina said heavily. "Mike O-12... they are probably going to have to mindwipe." Horatius slumped a little. He had hoped. "He... likely isn't going to get any better without one. They are letting him sleep naturally until he wakes. She is in the lab." The Executive paused and then spoke softly. "Anything you need, Commander. And I do mean _anything_. Ask." The com clicked off.

Abigail stared at him and shook her head. "Sister Harriet?"

" A Clergywoman." Abigail stiffened and Horatius nodded. "She is a specialist in mental traumas." Horatius explained. "Fixing them. Or _causing_ them. She is good."

"I..." Abigail swallowed hard. "I haven't lied to you."

"I want to believe you." Horatius said quietly. "But I can't. There is far too much at risk. Too many lives. Too many secrets. I am not going to lie. It _will_ hurt." Abigail nodded. "But she can make it far easier than any of my people here can." He glanced at her. "Thing is...the Clergy have their _own_ agenda. If it benefits them to throw us away, they _will_. Remember that."

"All I know is stories." Abigail said weakly. "Most bad."

"Yeah." Horatius agreed. A door ahead hissed open and Abigail tensed. She subsided as Horatius laid a gentle hand on her arm. "Easy girl. We can help. If you let us."

She nodded and did not speak as he led her into another room. The room was bare except for a table and a lot of menacing looking machinery. The woman at the control console turned and frowned just a little as she saw Abigail.

"Sister Harriet, this is Abigail." Horatius said as he stopped, Abigail stopping with him. "I need her scanned. She said some things that did not make a lot of sense to me. But Cass is excited."

"How old are you girl?" The young looking clergywoman asked quietly.

"Fifteen, Ma'am." Abigail was brave, Horatius had to give her that. She was barely trembling.

"Okay." The woman turned back to the console. "Up you get." Her voice was distant, but... kind. Abigail looked at Horatius who nodded. "I need to do some baseline scans. Anything I should know?"

"My ovaries are gone." Abigail said as she walked to the table. Horatius walked with her. If she ran... Harriet wasn't always gentle. Harriet paused and looked at her. "Only way I had to get out of debt. They paid the principle and left me to pay just the interest."

"Hell of a story there." Harriet commented, but her tone was still gentle. "Lie down on the table. I will rig a sedative and muscle relaxant. It will help with the pain."

"Yes. Ma'am." Abigail was terrified, but she controlled it well. She got unto the table under her own power and lay back. She did not resist as the automated restraints came up and clamped her in place. "I..." She gasped as the head restraint clicked into place and a machine swung down from the ceiling. "I..."

"Easy." Horatius said quietly, his hand stroking her arm. "The tenser you get, the worse it will hurt." Harriet nodded to him, a small object in her hands as she stepped to the table. "Tell me, do you sing?"

"Sing?" Abigail asked and then gasped as Harriet laid the object beside her arm. It extended tiny tendrils that poked her, but she immediately relaxed. The Clergywoman moved soft things under the girl's palms. "That... I..."

"I need to put a mouth guard in." Harriet said softly. "But _we_ can sing. It helps."

"I am scared." Abigail said, tears starting to fall.

"I know." Horatius said softly. "How about this... Twinkle, twinkle, little star..." He sang and Abigal relaxed further as Harriet put the mouth guard in. "...how I wonder what you are."

Harriet was smiling sadly as she stepped back to her console and energy started playing across Abigail's face. She grunted and Horatius continued to sing the ancient song, holding her hand gently as it clenched tight enough to hurt. The girl's grunts made the music... off, but he would not let her go.

He would not.

* * *

><p>"She is telling the truth." Harriet said as she watched Abigail sleep fitfully. After the session, another sedative had put the poor girl out completely. "<em>She<em> hacked the JX... _Fifteen_ and she hacked the _single_ most secure server on the _planet_. Dang... There is an alert out for her. Security is looking."

"Security can go fuck themselves." Horatius said without heat. He still held Abigail's hand. "We need her."

"Never the _easy_ way, huh, Horatius?" Harriet said with a snort. "One thing... the lab she sold her ovaries to? It's on Outer Terminus." Horatius went still. "And she has _been_ there." She rattled off a set of coordinates and Horatius nodded. "And..." A set of imaged appeared on the screen and Horatius nodded soberly.

"I see."

* * *

><p><em>And <em>_**another**__ piece falls into place... That man is __**scary**__. He made sure she would have a way out... He can't access the probabilities or any Oracles. How did he __**know?**_

The Lotus saw everything. It was what she was. What she did. But this... This was beginning to tax even _her_ prodigious resources to keep track of the many, many threads that were all leading to one set of probabilities. All the little things had had asked her to do. Like make sure _one_ particular _insanely_ gifted (and very heavily indebted) girl's computer had access to recruitment flyers that detailed the Special Forces. Just in case she had to run after hacking the wrong system. Which she _had_.

_Girl __**could**__ do far worse for a family..._ _He __**does**__ care for his people._ The Lotus mused and then focused on her task.

Getting a group of Tenno into position without actually telling most of them what the target actually **was**.

If they discovered too soon, they would do what they _did_ and the whole plan would all come crashing down. Too late? Horatius would survive the slaughter. No one else and the horror would begin again some_where_ else.

They had to do it right the first time.


	14. Chapter 14

**Misuses**

"Abigail...relax." Horatius said with a nod to the girl who was sitting so stiffly he worried she would break a bone if she _farted_. "If they ask any questions, tell them what I told you to say. Refer them to me or Sister Harriet. You are Abigail, a new recruit. You do not really know anything. You are a limited source of intel. Nothing more. You are _going_ to be nervous. You are _going_ to make mistakes. It _will_ happen." He said quietly.

"Do you want a mild sedative, Abigail?" Harriet asked from where she stood nearby. "It will help you stay calm."

"I want this to be a bad _dream!_" Abigail said with a snarl, but then nodded. Harriet stepped close and was deft. Abigail relaxed as the the hypo hissed. "That is... better." She said softly.

"If you get queasy, say so." Harriet said with a nod. "I can give you a suppressant. But... frankly? They won't _care_ if you barf. They have _far_ larger problems than _one_ girl embarrassing herself. One may make a snide comment, but they will not _do_ anything. You are far beneath their notice. We want to _keep_ it that way."

"O...Okay." Abigail said as she folded her hands in her lap. They were not trembling now. The suit she wore was standard Special Forces issue. Far better than any normal Corpus suit, but it looked the same.

"Good girl." Horatius said and turned to one wall. "Executive Vina?" He said in a formal tone. "We are ready."

"I managed to get three." A hologram of Vina appeared on the wall. She stood poised. "They are upset."

"Better than I had hoped for." Horatius said mildly. "And they are going to be more than _upset_ in a few minutes." Another wall came live and Abigail went still as three huge holographic heads appeared on it. All old. All in formal Corpus attire. Board. Horatius nodded to the three. "I apologize for the hasty summons, Board Members. But we have a situation. There was no time for formality."

"Speak." One said, his tone firm with disapproval.

"I have reason to believe that Board Member Frohd Bek has continued his experiments." At that, all three heads swiveled to stare at Horatius who nodded. "The ones involving cloned Tenno."

"You had better have proof, Commander." Another said with a grunt. "That is _not_ an accusation to make lightly."

"I need your permission to _get_ the proof." Horatius said with a nod. "There was an attack on this facility. An attempted snatch. The personnel were Bek's." All eyes were on him now and he nodded. "It was stopped and the survivors interrogated. They were supposed to take the brand new mother-to-be to a lab on Outer Terminus. Bek's territory."

"That is not proof." The third holo said repressively. "If you have wasted our time..." He trailed off dangerously.

"I have one piece of corroboration." Horatius said softly. "This is Abigail, a new recruit." He laid his hand on the girl's shoulder and she did not move. "Due to some unfortunate circumstances, she was forced to sell her reproductive organs. While she was at the facility in Outer Terminus, she saw some things she could not identify. We _did_."

Another holo -smaller- appeared nearby and Abigail pointedly did not look. The jars. The pieces. The _cloning_ machines with... pieces inside them. The...violet hulled machine that stood half built.

"This is also not conclusive proof." Horatius said as the three huge heads waited. "But I believe it _is_ good enough to provide probable cause for an investigation. If the Company does it the normal way, even Clergy, he will hear of it and either shut it down or destroy it to prevent disclosure. Then he will move it to a new location. I propose a mission to scout the area. Find proof and report it."

"He wouldn't _dare_!" The middle holo said sternly. "Not after the _mess_ last time! He _wouldn't_!" But he did _not_ sound convinced. The rightmost one just put a palm to his face.

"Six _billion_ credits in losses last time." The leftmost holo said slowly. "A _ship_, _two_ facilities, _hundreds_ of personnel and MOAs, a _Jackal_..." He sighed. "And a _total failure_ at that."

"Sirs, if he accesses the same tower... Which is the only one I know of that he has coordinates for... You know what will happen. The neural sentry was insane. It was taking over the base." Horatius said slowly. All three holos seemed to shudder. "Requesting permission to investigate further."

"You would anyway." The middle holo said sharply. "Why call us?"

"Because I am not omniscient, omnipotent nor immortal." Horatius said firmly. "I may fail. If I do, I will vanish. If he _does_ continue..." He broke off as two of the three holos inhaled sharply. "The Company will be hurt. Humanity will be hurt sorely. I won't allow that." The two side holos looked at the other and _he_ nodded slowly. "My request? If we _do_ fail? If you do not hear from us within a day? _Nuke_ the place."

"We did not talk." The middle holo said formally. "If we did, I would _certainly_ not wish you 'good luck'. But if you _do_ need it... 'Special' options _will_ be available." All three holos vanished.

"This never happened and we were never here." Horatius muttered under his breath. Abigail looked at him and he shrugged. "Service joke. You will understand. Someday."

"So... I can stay?" Abigail tried to get up and slumped in her seat. "I..."

"Yeah." Horatius said with a smile. "We need more techs. We will modify your training program to account for your age. But for today..." She gave a squeak as he bent down and easily lifted her into his arms. She lay there, limp. "Rest. We will need you Abigail. But not today." She never saw Harriet step close and apply a patch to her neck. The girl was out like a light. Horatius nodded his thanks to the sister who nodded back. "Executive?"

"I do not want to _know_ what you will do." Vina said sharply. "And anything that happens in your training facility is _your_ business." Horatius nodded and started off, back to the elevator and then to Abigail's future. "Sister Harriet, is there _anything_ we can do for Mike O-12?"

"Barring a foster family that is briefed on his problems and conditions..." Harriet said sadly. "I don't think so. Letting him start over may be the kindest thing we can do."

"I had a query." Vina said, her tone cautious. "It came through channels. We will need to vet it. The woman was asking specific questions though. She sounded... honest." The executive said a bit dubiously. "She kept it discrete, anonymous and all. But we may want to hold off a little until we can get more information. She sounded both horrified and wanting to help. But..."

"Do you want _us_ to handle it?" Harriet asked as Horatius made the door. It hissed shut before he could hear Vina's response.

There was no traffic in the halls at this hour. Everyone was on shift or asleep. He made it to the elevator with no problems and hit the button for the training facility, but then...

"Dad." Horatius froze. The girl in his arms was talking in her _sleep_! "I am sorry, dad... I tried... You and mom... They said you owed. I had to..."

"Easy." Horatius brushed Abigail's hair awkwardly. "It's okay, honey. It is all right." The door hissed open and Violet was standing there. She opened her mouth, only to snap it shut as Abigail cried.

"Didn't have a choice, dad..." Abigail was crying softly as Horatius -his face set- started off at a brisk walk. Violet followed, her face a mask. "Too much... There was no way... They said you were responsible... I didn't... I couldn't..."

"It is okay." Horatius said quietly. "It's all right." He soothed her as a door hissed open ahead of them and Cass beckoned them. He put a finger to his lips and Cass nodded.

The room was tiny. It wasn't meant for long term occupation. But now? It was Abigail's. She would sleep here instead of with the men of her training unit. They _would_ take care of her. The bed was rock hard, but Abigail did not complain as Horatius laid her down on it. She gave a sigh as the somatic unit in her pillow activated and lulled her into a deep sleep. Horatius stepped back and nodded to the other two. They could have a loud music concert in the room and she wouldn't notice. The programming she would receive was...slightly different from Corpus normal, but no less pervasive. The difference? They could and _would_ strive to make her _happy_. Not _just_ productive.

"She said she owed. Any idea how much?" Horatius asked quietly.

"Her father and mother died in the Grineer attack." Cass said quietly when the others looked at him. "Apparently, the father liked to gamble and owed close to a mil." Horatius whistled a bit. A million credit debt wasn't unheard of, but... Cass shook his head. "It's a bit sketchy."

"Sketchy _how?_" Violet demanded milliseconds before Horatius could say the same. She sat beside the girl's bed. As the only female Special Forces operative on base, she would likely take personal charge of the girl's training until they could work out more formal arrangements.

"All I found is the debt." Cass said quietly. "I can't find _who_ he gambled with or _where_. None of the records I have seen say he went _anywhere_ except his job or his home. Wife likewise. There should be _something_. Records of parties. Records of rec center visits, Hell, _bar tabs_. Nothing." Horatius went still and Cass nodded. "If I didn't _know_ better, since Company employees would _never_ falsify such..." The sarcasm was biting. "I would say she was selected. Records altered to put her in debt she was _never_ going to get out of. Guided into giving up her genetic material. And since there was no violations listed. Everything legal..." No traces, no mess, no fuss. Just one _destroyed_ girl.

"Son of a bitch!" Horatius said with feeling.

"Yeah. Any executive could have done it. Hell, _we_ could have. But we _didn't_. I know our tracks. It wasn't us." Cass said with a grunt. "She was on our 'watch' list due to her school scores. Higher than mine were." He said with a nod when the others looked at him. "I bet she went into... less than legal programming to pay off the rest of what she believed she owed. Fifty credits?" He offered, joking.

"I don't take sucker bets." Horatius said with a sigh. "So we have a girl who was suckered into giving up her future, at a lab where a brand new mother-to-be with clean human DNA was to be taken after being abducted and mindwiped..." He shook his head. "Thin."

"Boss." Cass said sourly. "I am in."

"Me too." Violet said with a snap. Horatius looked at the sleeping girl and then at her. "Natali is on her way. She is better at teaching anyway. If it is what we think... you will _need_ 'Big Boom'." She smiled wryly as both men winced. "Hey, I have gotten better with it."

"Considering you put Nik in the _hospital_ last time?" Horatius said dryly. "I sincerely _hope_ you have gotten better with it." Her fetish for Grineer tech had only gotten worse when she had 'acquired' a functional Ogris rocket launcher. She was... erratic with it at times. He had to admit, she was effective. And the wall she had blown down had won the battle. At the cost of nearly killing a teammate. But he _had_ been being overrun by Infested... Violet gave a haughty sniff and Horatius sighed. "This is going to be bad. You saw the reports. Even without a crazy Tenno tearing up the place... It is going to be bad if they power that thing up."

"We are with you, Boss." Violet and Cass both said in unison.

* * *

><p>"Okay." Horatius said quietly after his new team had assembled. "This is our target and what we know about it."<p>

A set of screens flashed and Cass rose to take over the briefing. He wasn't going. The Forces needed techs too desperately to put any of their precious few in danger, despite his strident complaints. He as good and his heavily modified Supra would have been welcome, but he was too precious since they had lost _three_ tech qualified people with Horatius' last team. They would get more, but until then? He was sidelined for training Abigail. And _very_ unhappy about it.

"Target is a genetics research lab." Cass was calm, but his eyes were flashing as he nodded to Horatius. It had taken the Commander quite a bit to get the stubborn tech to see reason. "Outer Terminus Pluto. We also have reason to believe they are cloning." A rustle went around the room but he wasn't done. "Cloning Tenno."

"Oh not _again!_" The chorus mixed with hearty expletives went around the room.

"Yeah." Horatius said when the muttering had died down. "Our job is to get in and find out what they are doing. If they _are_ doing what we think... we shut it _down_. Hard and fast. We all saw what happened the last time."

None of them shuddered, but all wanted to. All had seen the base filled with dead Corrupted who had been Corpus personnel before the insane neural sentry had subverted them. They had all collapsed when the portal had closed. Cut off from their puppet master.

"Who is going?" Violet was caressing her boxy Ogris in a way that had Horatius _hoping_ it wasn't loaded. Knowing her? It _was_ and her neighbors looked rather nervous.

"Put it _down_, Violet." Horatius said with a snap. "You know you are in. Heavy weapons and demo. We will try to sneak in. If we can't? We go loud. We _will_ find out what is going on and stop it."

"I _like_ loud." Violet said with a wide leer. She did lower the Ogris to the floor and leave it there.

"I _never_ would have guessed." Horatius said dryly to several chuckles. But then he became serious. "Make no mistake here, people." Horatius said as the room focused on him. "If we mess up, we will all become what we found in that base." Slaves to a neural sentry. No one knew of said slaves remembered being more or not. But no one wanted to find out. "I asked the Board for a special tasking if we fail."

At _that_, everyone went still. Nuclear weapons were not handled lightly by _anyone_. Not even Grineer used them wantonly. They would if they had to, but they wanted to _conquer_, not just _destroy_ everything. Dead slaves and irradiated wastelands didn't get them much. They could make do if they had to, but they wanted more. Nuclear weapons would cause more trouble than they solved generally. But for _this_? Extreme overkill was justified.

"Obmar, you are point." Hortius said to an operative who wore the green suit of a Prodman with the signature Prova. But he also had a odd looking bow slung. Not -quite- a Tenno bow. Sneaky or loud, the guy was good. Now if only his name of 'John' wasn't quite so common. He was _anything_ but common. "I will be third and have a Penta, my suppressed Marlock and a Serro."

"Two more." Violet said with a nod. Horatius made a face at her and she grinned. "Hey, I like stating the obvious too.

"We _never_ would have guessed." _This_ time, the dry murmur chorused around the room. Violet made an obscene gesture to general chuckles. Horatius smiled, but nodded.

"From what we scanned of the lab in Abigail's memories... not enough I am afraid..." He said with a shrug. "Not a lot of long sightlines. No sniper perches." Both of the snipers frowned. "Chris? How are you with a Dera?"

"I prefer a Latron, Boss." The sniper said quietly. But then again, he did _everything_ quietly. "Hard to silence plasma charges." He would also carry a pistol and knife too. He always did, but rarely used them.

"And _you_ hit what you aim at." Horatius said as he glanced pointedly at Violet and her 'toy'. She met his gaze with one of artful innocence, but he wasn't fooled. "Simon, you too." The last was a solid and dependable sort. Not great at any particular field, but good at many. He was a passable tech too. The Crewman nodded.

"Boss..." Cass complained. "You will _need_ tech support!"

"Remote." Horatius' tone brooked no further comment and Cass sighed, but nodded. "This has all kinds of ways it could go pear shaped, people. I want every eye we can have on this. Drone, camera, whatever. I want it to be _ours_. You stay at the ship, Cass. If you lose downlink, bug out. _Fast_."

"Yes sir." Cass said, his tone sullen.

"I am serious, Cass." Horatius said sharply. "Don't game this, and for god's sake, don't _ignore_ me." All eyes were on him now. "I have a _really_ bad feeling about this one. _Worse_ than the one I had when we went to Mars. I... I don't want to lose everyone again... Please, Cass. If we don't make it out, you guide the special munition in, come back and train Abigail. She _will_ need help. The Forces are needed. Now more than ever if there _are_ Orokin Marines left or returning or whatever. _They_ will need us."

"Okay." Cass said quietly. "So... entry plan?"

"That is simple." Horatius said as he smiled at Violet who stared at him. She shook her head.

"Boss, they get _one_ scan of me and they will know I am sterile." It... hadn't been easy for her to adjust, but her teammates had helped.

"Trust me." Horatius said in an earnest little boy voice and the whole room cracked up laughing.

_Yeah right..._

* * *

><p><em>And...time... <em>The Lotus sighed and opened her mind. _Nikis._

_**When?**_ The absolutely furious response came quick.

_They leave in two hours and arrive at Pluto in four._ The Lotus said slowly. _Nikis, please don't..._ She sighed inaudibly as he cut the connection. _Janet says he will stay on track and I trust her... but... He has a __**right**__ to his anger. Please, Nikis... _She begged the ether.

There was no response.


	15. Chapter 15

**You call THIS sneaking?**

It wasn't...exactly...standard procedure. Actually, it wasn't even _close_. It was a good thing Violet was supposed to be not able to talk. If it wouldn't have blown their cover sky-high, she would giving him an earful right about now. He tugged the leash and Violet followed, her posture seemingly subdued. Unless you knew exactly what she was, and then you read a _very_ different emotion. Readiness. He ignored the stares of the few workers on the landing pad and started for the door of the facility. He could feel scrutiny on himself and the... other. He ignored it. He had to stay in character. As long as they didn't get a good detailed scan on him or Violet, they were golden.

Admittedly, he thought that _Violet_ had been responsible for his wardrobe choices. The outfit was...distinctly Executive. If said executive was _color blind_ anyway. No one _sane_ mixed the nasty shade of purple that suffused his clothing with the _god-awful_ blue of his hat. Then again, he was in character and he had know a few whose taste in colors had been worse. Not _many_ mind you.

He passed the two MOAs at the door and neither so much as twitched. Mentally he blessed the deviousness that Special Forces techs had gone through to make operative augmentations nearly invisible to most forms of sensor. It took a _very_ close range or _very_ high power scan to see anything wrong at all. By then? It was usually too late. The doors hissed and he entered the lobby, his hand twitching the leash.

"Can I... _help_ you?"

The female voice was perplexed. Horatius turned to look. The secretary at the desk was fairly good looking. According to everything the team had been able to discover in transit, there was a full outer shell of personnel who were probably dupes or decoys. Actual company employees who were just doing their jobs. Her eyes lingered on Horatius for a moment, but then travelled to Violet. He couldn't really blame her.

He had to admit, Violet looked stunning in white. That was definitely the right word. Not a centimeter of Violet's skin was uncovered. The standard issue Corpus space suit had been replaced by a _much_ more form fitting suit that left _very_ little to the imagination. The mask that she wore wasn't even remotely close to standard issue. It wasn't vacuum resistant for one thing, not with the holes in it that showed skin through transparent parts. Then there was the small matter of the covers over her eyes. Violet had complained nonstop about the outfit until they had put the _gag_ in. With her hands bound on front of her in cuffs that she could get out of in seconds if needed and her feet hobbled by short, utterly fake chains, she definitely _looked_ the part. Horatius knew he would pay for this. Probably sooner rather than later if they survived this mission, but for now it was just too fun watching her squirm.

"I hope so, darlin'." Horatius let the last word drawl out in a deep accent he had heard in holo somewhere. The character had been... slime. He needed to act the part. "I am here about a debt."

"A debt." The woman swallowed hard, but retained her poise. "I am afraid you may be in the wrong place, Mr...?" She let the sentence fade, an inquiry.

"My name is Lector." Horatius said with a sigh. "I have an appointment, darlin'. Go on." He waved for her to look on her computer. She did, obviously glad not to be looking at Violet. It was pure coincidence that Violet's eyes -and the goggles that _seemed_ to blind her- turned to where the woman was tapping keys. Of _course_ it was. It wasn't like the goggles could read electronic transmissions or even allow her to see through solid objects to see the woman key in her passcodes. Of _course_ not. "It was a long flight from Venus."

It had taken a little bit of sleight of hand and a few favors called in. But the team had managed to get an appointment booked. Not that the facility had a clue _what_ had been booked. For all that the team had discovered, the outer shell knew _nothing_ about what was actually happening. Just doing their jobs. Nothing illegal or immoral about what they had been hired to do. Nothing at all. On the _outside_ anyway.

"Ah... yes. Mr. Lector." The receptionist said in a weak voice. "I see you were added in today. Um... Sir..."

"Good." Horatius said with a nod. "Then you can get her in today. I need to get back. All kinds of things go wrong when I am not there to... What?" He demanded as the woman shook her head.

"Sir..." The woman swallowed hard. "I need to call my supervisor."

"All _right_." Horatius put just the right amount of 'put upon' in his tone. "But if you make me miss my return flight, I _will _file a lawsuit."

"It...shouldn't take long... sir..." The woman said as she hit a command that would probably summon her supervisor. "Um... Can I get... you anything?" Horatius just looked at her and she gulped again. "Um..."

"You are cute." Horatius said with a wide smile. "If you are ever in the Red Light Sector on Venus, give me a call." He smiled as he sent her a set of utterly fictitious contact information. From her expression, she would wipe it as soon as she could without giving offense. He hoped so anyway. She didn't seem a bad sort, just clueless as to what actually went on inside the _inner_ doors to the facility.

"Mr... Lector?" A man dressed as a supervisor stepped out into the reception area and did a double take worthy of an ancient entertainment holo as he saw the spectacle. "What... is... _this_...?" He asked slowly.

"Supervisor? This is Mr. Lector and his... He has an appointment." The receptionist said weakly. "But... _Sir_..."

"I have this, Tania K-31." The supervisor said with a sigh. The _I think_ was mental, but _loud_. "Go... get lunch."

"Yes sir." The girl just about _bolted_ out a side door.

"Okay." Horatius said with a sigh. "I think I see. We have a failure of communication?"

"Sir." The supervisor spoke slowly and carefully. "We only take consenting adults into our program." Horatius stared at him, widening his eyes carefully. "I... get the feeling... _she_ isn't consenting."

"Who? V here?" Horatius jerked the leash and Violet made a noise. "She is _all_ about consent. You think I could get her into this stuff _without_ it?" He asked, incredulous.

"I..." The supervisor shook himself. "Sir... I understand you came a long way. But... If anyone from security sees you... and her... _here_... We will have _big_ problems!"

"Aw geez. We _do_ have a failure of communication." Horatius said quietly. "V was the one who asked me to bring her." The supervisor stared at him and then at the oddly garbed woman. His disbelief was plain. "You think I _like_ travelling through a bunch of Grineer patrols? Sleeping in cargo pods? Do I _look_ like I can afford a portal transit?"

"I... wouldn't know, sir." The supervisor said with a wince.

"Okay..." Horatius said with a sigh. "Let me start at the beginning. V here is...a bit of a... strange one." The other male did not look at the woman, he kept his eyes on Horatius. "She is in debt and I am a...friend of her family." The other cocked an eyebrow at him and Horatius sighed. "Yes, I know how this looks. But V _did_ consent. V!" He snapped. Violet nodded her head sharply. "See?"

"Sir..." The supervisor said slowly. "You know I can't take your word for that. Do you have _any_ idea what security would do to me? To the whole _staff_ if we started to take just _anyone_? And if any of them complained? You _know_ who they would call."

"V!" Horatius said sharply. "Show the nice man." Violet stood up, her 'chains' falling away from her wrists and ankles. She reached up and pulled the goggles off her eyes. Then she undid the gag.

"I want this." Violet said in a soft, sultry voice. "I need the funds."

"Let me see those!" The supervisor said sharply. Violet kicked the chains to him and he reached down to touch them. "I..." A hiss and crackle of electricity sounded and he fell limp. Stun charges were so much fun!

"Vent!" Horatius snapped as he moved to the man's side, checking his vitals. Violet nodded and tossed her 'gag'. It hit an air vent cover and... broke it into pieces. It flew inside, out of sight."Cass?"

'We have had control of the outer facility cameras for the last two minutes.' Cass' voice came through their auditory implants. 'Administering gas... now.' A hiss came from the vent. Neither operative was affected. Their implants rendered them immune to most common -and many _un_common- knockout agents. 'No facility personnel unaccounted for. Man...that girl was _upset_. She was actually _crying_!'

"Cass, if a _single_ holo of me in this... this _crap_ gets out, winds up on the _net_... I _will_ find you." Violet promised. "Computers are ours, boss. No alarms. No notifications. Sending all other appointments cancellation notices now. We will have at least an hour. Maybe two before security starts looking at why the ship hasn't left."

"Right." Horatius said sharply. "Come on in. Get the supervisor secured and in with the others and let's get changed."

"Can't be soon _enough!_" Violet said with a snarl. "I have let you talk me into some _crazy_ things, boss! But _this_...?"

"It is for the Company, Violet." But Horatius was ducking as she threw the goggles at him. If she had hit him, it would have hurt. The other three of his team entered the facility.

"Landing area?" Horatius dodged again as Violet threw a pen at him with one hand while working the computer with the other.

"All surveillance is ours." Obmar said calmly. "All personnel asleep and secured. Tranks will last two hours." He held out a duffle. "Your gear."

The others picked up the supervisor to move him with the others. All would be secured and left. If the best happened? Security would find them and release them when the team had left. They would be questioned and released. Likely none had any records. All were loyal employees in the wrong place at the wrong time. If the worst? They would likely never feel the blast that killed them.

"Right." Horatius said as he took the duffle and headed for the room marked 'refresher' with a male symbol on it. "Don't let her have a knife until _after_ I am in armor, please?"

"I am not going to use a _knife_, boss." Violet said as Chris tossed her own bag to her and she headed for the refresher with the female symbol on it. "I will use a _fork_."

She wasn't kidding. He knew that. Maybe the chance to blow stuff up would calm her down.

Maybe.

* * *

><p>Horatius felt better in gear. The Special Forces armor was far better than any of the rank and file could boast. But it was the other tool that really made him feel better. The Penta, Marlok and... he had changed his mind. He had chosen his Prova again. The Prova had been his first weapon, way back when he had first joined the Corpus military, even before he had joined the Special Forces. There <em>was<em> something to be said for simply beating the crap out of things with an electrified stick sometimes. But he did prefer long range work. Safer. Usually.

He raised a hand and made a circle in the air. A gesture and the team split, three to one side of the door, two to the other.

"Cass?" Horatius asked quietly as they each checked their gear.

'Inner facility is on its own network.' Cass said, his voice worried. 'No scans. Once you go in, I will lose you.'

"One hour, Cass." Horatius said firmly. "If we are not back or send word, lift in one hour from my mark. Mark. You know what to do."

'Give them hell, Boss.' Cass said, for once subdued.

"With pitchforks." Horatius said as he nodded to his point who worked the door controls. The doors opened to... an empty corridor. "Corridor clear. Advancing."

The team stacked up and moved in. Just after Violet, the rear guard passed, the door hissed shut behind them and all of the Special Forces soldiers froze. The whole team waited as Violet examined the door. She shook her head as Horatius stared at her, her hand pointing to the door. His guts froze as he realized it had not just closed. It had _locked_. They were _trapped_!

'Demo?' He motioned and she shook her head. Too big and too well reinforced. He shook his head, aware of the chrono counting in his HUD. They had no choice. He waved a hand and his point moved forward. They had to find a way out. And hopefully what they had come to find as well.

None of them saw the oblong white and golden drone that hovered in a vent near the ceiling. Watching.

* * *

><p><em>Well, that sucks.<em> The Nekros shook his head as he moved slowly through the ducts.

It seemed every Corpus facility had large ducts intended to carry air throughout it. They were far larger than seemed to be needed. The Tenno wasn't sure why they were that way. He didn't really care. The team was cut off from their coms and time was ticking away. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have given a flying rat's ass about a team of Corpus soldiers no matter how skilled. These were _not_ ordinary circumstances. He had to talk to the team leader. Explain. Somehow. And to do that? He had to follow through with this insane 'plan' that the lunatic had come up with. Of all the silly ideas... He didn't like fanatics of any stripe. The thought of helping the _Corpus_ made his skin crawl. But he had to. He had to help. So he could talk to the human named Horatius.

He had no idea _what_ he was going to say. Or how. What had happened was a matter of record. But... he hadn't thought... He shook his head. The past was past.

_Nikis._ The voice of what was left of his son spoke into his mind. _It isn't your fault._

_I know that, Dustin. _Nikis felt... calm. Sort of. He wasn't angry at the moment. But it was fake. That calm. Maybe the calm before a great storm. He wouldn't go crazy. Janet _had_ and _did_ help him. A lot. He did love her and she returned the feelings. Pity they could only do things virtual, but it helped. So did his sessions with Iriana. But he had a lot of rage saved up. Lots of things to be angry about. Now? One more. _If __**anyone**__ is at fault, the Enemy was and Phoenix put paid to the latest incarnation of __**that**__. But I feel responsible._

_I know. _For once, Dustin did not joke, or laugh. _I don't __**remember**__. But I feel responsible too._

_Yeah. _Nikis paused as he entered larger area and several other Tenno stood, checking weapons. He nodded to Karl. "They are in. The door sealed. Are the others _sure_ they can open it?"

"I don't argue with _you_ about marksmanship. I am not going to argue with _Miguel_ about _firepower_." Karl said mildly. "If he says it will open the door, it _will_ open the door. May take two shots though." He shrugged. "Now...as to what will be _left_ on the other _side_ afterwards..."

"According to the plan... The team will move into the facility." Nikis said firmly. "Look for a way to open the door. Look for way to shut down the portal. That whole thing about 'getting proof' was a pile of crap." Karl made sour noise and Nikis shook his head. "Placated the politicos for a bit, but they will get antsy. And then? They will want the way for themselves."

"I know." Karl agreed sourly. "So we can't let them do it. Can't leave anything behind this time."

"Yeah." Nikis said with a snort. "You bring it?"

"You don't have _enough_ weapons, Nikis?" Karl asked softly, taking in the Nekros' primary, secondary and melee weapons.

"You forget, boy." Nikis said quietly. "I was there with Serene when we sealed the tower off during the war. I _know_ that tower. It knows _me_. As soon as it sees me, all _hell_ is going to break loose. So, we let it loose _first_."

"Nikis..." Karl said with a sigh, but then he moved aside and let Nikis see the long cylindrical object that lay on the deck behind him. "This thing is _heavy_. You won't be able to move fast or _dodge_."

"There are times for mobility, Karl." Nikis said as he bent down to check the device. "Flipping, dodging, parkour...all of that. And then there are _times_..." He hefted the long device and it gave a whine as it powered up. "...to kick _ass_." He chuckled sourly.

"What?" Karl asked, worried.

"I am reminded of a really old, really _bad_ entertainment holo." Nikis said with a wicked smile in his voice as he lowered the huge weapon back to the floor. "Good guy walks into a room filled with bad guys and says 'I have come chew _bubblegum_ and _kick ass_. And I am _all out_ _of bubblegum_'."

"What the hell is 'bubblegum'?" Karl asked, confused. Nikis sighed.

"Never mind." The Nekros went still as the Lotus' voice sounded. From their postures, all of the Tenno heard her.

_Corrupted detected. Heading for the Special Forces' ship._

"Mine." Nikis said in a tone that brooked no argument as he walked back into the ducts. "Don't forget my BFG. Time to run out of bubblegum."

All of the Tenno stared after him. Then they all looked at each other.

"_Bubblegum_?"


	16. Chapter 16

**Uh oh...**

It was a trap. Every member of the team knew it was. But... nothing was happening. The corridors were clear. Every room they checked was empty. Some had cloning machines, dormant now. Others had tables with unidentifiable things on them. Some had jars with things that Horiatius wished he _couldn't_ identify in them. Then they heard it. The whole team froze as they heard soft crying. Someone was crying. Someone... young.

"Please..." The voice begged. "Don't..." The voice turned into a female scream and the team flattened themselves against one wall. Horatius waved a question to his point and the point nodded to an open door nearby. Horatius eased up to it and slid a tiny mirror up past the edge of the door to get a look. No tech at all, undetectable. What he saw froze his blood.

A form in a Corpus space suit was working at a table. A Tech. On that table lay a familiar form. A Fusion MOA with a violet hull. A Command and Control MOA! Someone had built _another_ one! That was bad. But what was _worse_? The Corpus Tech's suit was half red, half _golden_. It was changing as he watched. The outer fabric was turning into golden calcified flesh. He didn't _need_ to see the golden hoops on its forehead to know what it was. Corrupted. Brand new Corrupted.

They were too late. The portal was open.

Horatius took a deep breath and waved to his team. He holstered his Penta and took careful aim with his Marlock. Obmar shook his head, took a hand from his bow and tapped the side of his helmet. Horatius paused and then nodded. The pistol _itself_ might be suppressed, but the projectile breaking the speed of sound and then impact would make noise. Likely lots of it. He didn't see any more Corrupted. He waved a question at Obmar, but the point shook his head. Only one? That made no sense at all.

_Trap?_ He motioned and Obmar shrugged. Another scream came from the MOA and Horatius grimaced under his helmet. The team leader made a throat cutting gesture and Obmar nodded, slinging his bow and drawing his Prova.

"I... won't... help you!" The voice was very young. Female and very young. From her stance, Violet was about to get pissed. Horatius knew the feeling."I _won't_!"

Obmar slid into the room. He was very good. His armored boots made no noise on the deck as he crept towards the Corrupted that was doing something. A golden orb was in its hand now and Horatius willed Obmar to move faster.

The rest of the team kept a wary watch as Obmar slid up behind the Corrupted. Even fully formed Corrupted Crewmen could be taken out with the proper technique, which Obmar was a past master of. This one was only half corrupted. Before it could even realize Obmar was there, it was being lowered to the ground, it's neck twisted oddly. Leverage with a Prova made all _kinds_ of things possible. Even breaking Corpus spacesuit helmets _and_ the necks underneath them. What was better? No noise. No alarms. Just instant, silent oblivion.

"No..." The female voice sounded weak and scared. "Run..." Horatius waved to Violet who slung her Ogris and stepped forward, her scanner whirring. "Please... run." The voice begged. "It knows you are here!"

"We know." Horatius said quietly as Violet worked. "You have a name?"

"I am S-19." The MOA said with a whimper. "Hurts..."

"I know." Horatius said softly. "Violet?" He asked as the female soldier's shoulders fell. Even before she turned, he knew.

"Not a chance with what we have, Boss." Violet said sadly. She laid hand on the MOA's hull. "I am sorry, girl. I can't fix what is wrong with you."

"You have to get _out_ of here!" The MOA sounded fearful. But not for herself, itself. Whatever. For them. "They... they made me open it... I didn't want to! They hurt me, made me open it... I... I can't..."

"What happened?" Horatius said, feeling every second. "It is very important. Did they open the portal?"

"They..." The MOA hesitated and then spoke in a firmer voice. "I woke up. They said I was needed. A key. I... Some were nice. Others were mean. The nice ones wanted me to rest. The mean ones told me to touch a golden thing. They argued and one of the mean ones hurt me. I did what he said... But... it hurt. I fell over and... a bunch of golden people came out the circle on the wall! They were shooting... Everyone was falling and screaming and... I... I couldn't _do_ anything!" She was crying again. "Everyone fell over and the golden people were putting things on them and... I saw... the room was _changing_..."

"Nanites. It isn't your fault, honey." Horatius said soothingly. "We can stop this. But we need your help."

"_My_ help?" The MOA asked, worried. "What can I do? I can't even move! It... I can feel something... it is trying to get in. It has been since I touched the golden thing. I... I don't know how long I can hold it out."

"Could you move before?" Horatius asked as Violet unslung her rocket launcher. From her fingers tapping on it, she was mad. And getting madder.

"Yes?" The little girl's voice said dubiously. "But... I can't now." Violet looked at Horatius and nodded slowly. Only one being had a chance to close the portal now that it was live. The MOA.

"Honey." Horatius said softly. "You opened the portal. Only _you_ can close it without destroying this whole facility."

"But I can't _move_!" The girl MOA protested.

"We can get you to the portal." Horatius said quietly, silently hoping that what he said was the truth. "But then you have to close it or everything in this place will die."

"I didn't mean to..." The violet robot begged.

"It is not your fault, honey." Violet said with a sigh as she moved to the table, her scanner out again. "I may be able to get your locomotion systems going again, but it will likely hurt. Simon?" The other Special Forces soldier moved to assist.

"This is too easy, boss." Chris said in a monotone as the other three gathered just inside the door. "Why would it want us to repair the MOA?"

"It doesn't." Horatius said firmly. "It wants the MOA to _want_ to help us. Part of the... programming." He swallowed. He had seen...reports on how the C&C MOAs were to be trained. Corpus had brainwashing down to a science but brainwashing a being who was part organic and part robotic was not easy. Pain was the chief motivator for the psychos who had started the project. "She is programmed to serve. To obey any lawful orders. And to protect any Company assets she can. If the sentry takes us prisoner, uses us to coerce her... it can make her set the portal so it _can't_ be closed."

"Oh shit..." Chris said as that sank in.

"Yeah." Horatius agreed. "Oh shit. Keep an eye out." He paused and nodded to the ceiling. The sniper looked up and froze on seeing a vent. The drone _inside_ the vent. His rifle moved as if to aim. "No. We need to end this." He stepped forward and spoke loudly. "We have no quarrel with you." He said firmly. "The ones who ordered the trespass will be punished." If it _wasn't_ the insane one...

_**You will serve.**_

The voice came from everywhere. Every one of the Special forces froze and then Simon and Violet went back to their work.

"No we won't." Horatius said with a sigh. It was the insane one. Figured. "You will fight. You will lose. Even if you corrupt us, even if you corrupt everything here... The Board will nuke this facility." He hoped so anyway. He wasn't so sure. Greed was endemic to the Board. It was what they _were_. And this? This promised astronomical profits. Access to a functioning Orokin tower. _If _they could just get past the insane AI that guarded it. Not an easy prospect if possible at _all_. "You cannot win here."

_**You will serve. **__**All**__** will serve.**_

"Ah well..." Horatius said with a sigh as he unlimbered his Penta. "I _tried_ the easy way. But... We are Special Forces. We don't _do_ the easy way." He nodded to Chris and the drone disintegrated under a silent Latron shot. "We are going to have _company_. Violet?"

"How is that?" Violet asked and the MOA gave a cry of pain. "Sorry, sorry, honey..." She bent back to her work.

"Please run." The MOA begged. "I can't... I can't stop it... It... I feel... No..."

"You can." Horatius said firmly. "You are strong. Stronger than any AI. We are trapped in here." The MOA gasped and then started to cry again. "It is all right..." He soothed her. "Do you mind if I call you something other than S-19? That is... impersonal."

"I am just a robot." The girl's voice said sadly, then she gave another cry as Violet did something. "I... I can..." Her legs twitched. "I can feel them now. That is working. Some."

"We can get you moving, girl." Violet promised. "The rest is up to you. We need to shut the portal."

"I don't know what I did." The MOA sounded abject.

"We will figure it out." Horatius said with a nod. "But for now... 'S'... 'S'..." He mused. "You need a name. You are not _just_ a MOA. How about... Shawna?"

_"Shawna?" _The MOA sounded confused. "I am not human."

"No." Horatius said with a shrug. Was that movement in the distance? It was! Corrupted. He nodded to the door and the other two took aim. Chris with his Latron and Obmar with his bow. "But you are also not _just_ a robot. You have organic parts and feelings."

"I... I don't understand." The MOA said softly. She gave a gasp as he legs twitched again and then Violet and Simon backed away as it rose up off the able to stand upright. "I _am_ a robot." She said, looking at herself.

"But they made you with the brain of a little girl." Horatius said softly. Violet looked to the side and gasped. Horatius looked and yes, a tiny form lay under a sheet near one wall. Where the head would have been was...deformed and soaked in red. The MOA looked as well and gave a small sound of grief or pain. Hard to say which. Violet laid a hand on the robot's hull. "You are not _just_ a robot, honey. Samantha, Sabrina, Stacy?" He asked, his tone just a little silly as he took aim at the leading Corrupted with his Penta. "Incoming."

Violet and Simon joined the team in position as the MOA stood, obviously thinking hard. Both took aim at the ranks of Corrupted. All of the golden forms were half gold skin and half Corpus colors.

"I don't understand." The MOA finally said. "Why are you being nice? You are soldiers, yes?"

"We are." Horatius said firmly. "But we need you and we don't _have_ to be mean. Savannah, Shiloh, Susan?"

"Susan..." The MOA said slowly. She mulled it around. "Susan. I like that name."

"Okay, Susan it is. Stay to the side, Susan." Hroatius said with a nod. "Pick your targets, people. This is just the first rush. A probe. The heaviest come later. Save your best stuff for that."

"You cannot escape." The newly named MOA -Susan- said slowly. "So... what?"

"We do what we _do_." Horatius said with a smile as he slung his Pent and drew his Marlock. "We make a _mess_." He fired and suddenly the room was filled with the roar of weapons as the team unloaded on the approaching Corrupted. "I just hope Cass is okay..."

* * *

><p>Cass was cursing when it happened. One moment, he was sitting at his console, working frantically to unlock the door that had just sealed itself behind the team, the next he was lying on the floor, staring up at the... golden skinned form that stood over him. Corrupted! A Corrupted Corpus soldier! It was bending down towards him, an odd golden sphere in hand. Was it his imagination that a part of it was extending into a spike? That the end of said spike was glowing? His side and back hurt and he couldn't move as the orb came closer and closer. Then the golden form was catapulted away to the sound of a gunshot. He stared up... at a Tenno!<p>

"I..." Cass tried to move, tried to speak, but he couldn't as the Tenno held a hand over him. But instead of energy... green mist fell. He held his breath, but the mist...soothed his side and back. It stopped. "What the-?"

The Tenno raised a hand to his -yes, a Nekros warframe, so a male or... maybe- well... where lips would be on a human and shook his head. He tapped where ears would be and the tech nodded. They were under observation. Someone was listening. Someone hostile. The tech pulled a portable jammer from a pocket and keyed it on. It wouldn't last, but for the moment they were secure.

"We are blown, aren't we?" Cass asked softly, stunned. The Tenno nodded. "Aw _no_..."

The Tenno pointed at Cass and then to his console. Cass stared and the Tenno made the gesture more urgently. The warframe tapped a chrono on the wall and looked at Cass.

"An hour..." Cass said softly. "I... I don't want to." To his amazement, the Tenno laid a slow hand on his shoulder and gave a squeeze. The Special Forces operative stared as other Tenno appeared, each carrying a pair of unconscious workers from the outer ring of the facility. In moments, all of them were slumped in the small transport. "What the hell?"

The Nekros stepped back and nodded to Cass as the other Tenno left the ship. He pointed at the chrono and then at the ceiling.

"I can't _leave_ them!" Cass protested, but then his eyes were drawn to the screen. The other Tenno were gathering near the door to the inner facility. His eyes went huge. The Nekros mimed an explosion. Then henodded to Cass, then pointed at where ears and eyes would be on a human again. "You are going to blow the door. I will have coms again." The Nekros nodded. "But..."

Cass swallowed whatever he was going to say as the Nekros shrugged. Cass shook himself and sat at his panel. He saw several brand new signals -Orokin style signals- and jammed them. When he turned back, the Nekros was gone.

"There is no _way_ that just happened..." But he saw a familiar form on the video screens moving towards the door.

And... _what_ was the Nekros carrying?

* * *

><p><strong>Near the door<strong>

"Nikis..." Karl said quietly on a private channel.

"He was going to go in after them, Karl." Nikis replied just as quietly. "I know the type. I don't hold with the whole 'we never talk' bit anyway. But I _didn't_. So _there_." He said snidely.

"Nikis." Karl said softly. "You all right?"

"What kind of a question is _that_?" Nikis demanded as he set down his BFG and checked his other weapons. He had...a lot of weapons on his person. "No, I am not _all right_. But the noncombatants are clear."

"We can't go in yet, Nikis." Karl said quietly. "The plan..."

"I _know_ the plan, numbnuts." Nikis snapped. "It is a _good_ plan. But _you_ know the first rule of combat." Karl nodded. No plan _ever_ survived contact with the enemy. "The others?"

Everything seemed to stop as a golden flash dazzled everyone and suddenly the large corridor seemed filled. A dozen forms in familiar uniforms nodded to the five Tenno. A large weapon sat in the midst of them and two moved to check it. It reoriented a bit to aim it at the door. The Tenno... got out of the way. No one _sane_ got in front of a heavy plasma cannon. Not even _warframes_ could repel literal firepower of that magnitude. The door? It might last for _two_ shots. Maybe.

The Tenno switched to a short range encrypted channel so the Marines could hear.

"One Special Forces tech in their ship." The Nekros said with a snap as the Marines deployed. "Keep him honest." Two Marines nodded and loped out the door. He hefted his main weapon and chuckled a bit grimly. "Now we wait."

"And hope." Karl said softly.

"One way or another..." Nikis said quietly. "I ain't leaving until I can talk to him. Lousy stupid lying..."

"She didn't _lie_, Nikis. She didn't know. No one did." Karl said mildly as the Marines looked at the irate Nekros and his huge weapon. "What would you have done if she had told you the whole truth? Stormed the place? _Again_?"

"Dunno." Nikis said with a sigh. "But Karl... I owe him an explanation at the _very_ least. Probably an apology too."

"Nikis, it wasn't _you_." Karl said quietly. "You know that."

"Yeah." Nikis agreed. "I do. But that _doesn't_ change that fact that someone I need to talk to is in there. That tower is _not_ taking him." He hefted the ancient style chaingun in both hands and death itself seemed to smile. "I got a _lot_ of mad to work out. Good thing we will have _lots_ of targets. I could even say 'It's payback tyme'..." The phrase came out in an odd accent. "...but none of _you_ would get the reference."

"Oh _I_ do." One of the Marines said with a snort. "'Predator'. Not too good a movie, _great_ lines." Nikis raised a hand from his weapon to give the Marine a fist to bump. Which the guy did.

"What is _with_ that, Nikis?" Two asked from where she stood well behind the plasma cannon. "Why are you suddenly acting like _Ric_?"

Ric's penchant for acting out scenes from his favorite movie, something called 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' was a well known oddity among Tenno. He was a good sort, a very skilled knight in shining Vauban warframe. But he was... odd.

"Iriana wanted me to try to find funny things to think of every time I get mad." Nikis said with a shrug. "It... works. Sort of. Therapy." He said offhand. It would have gone better without the _huge_ weapon in his hands.

"_Therapy?_" A couple of people asked, incredulous.

"Yeah." Nikis said mildly. "Helps to get the mad out."

"Wish I had said 'I'll be bak' last time. But it is the _thought_ that counts."


	17. Chapter 17

**Professionals**

Susan the MOA was making weeping noises as she cowered by one wall. The fire that the team was putting out was actually rather quiet. Most of their weapons were suppressed after all. The fire coming _in_? Not so much.

"Watch that clump, point two!" Horatius said with a snap as he fired his Marlock methodically. Each shot ended a Corrupted.

"On it!" Violet said with a snarl as she aimed her Ogris. One rocket later, a half dozen Corrupted who had been trying to get close enough to rush the door way were in scattered parts. "Two clips left!" She called. Horatius sighed and slung her two of his. She as definitely... enthusiastic with the thing. Which was both good and bad. Good in that she was devastating the enemy. Bad in that when she ran _out_? They had problems. "Thanks!" She called as she reloaded.

"Save them!" Horatius said sharply. "They are soaking up our fire, trying to get us to use all our ammo. We haven't seen any of the big ones yet. We _will_." Violet snarled but nodded, unholstering her Brakk. He had no idea _how_ she had gotten that. He had never really had the guts to ask.

"Drone!" Obmar called and Chris fired a single shot, blowing the tiny mechanical monstrosity into a million pieces. "Good shot."

The drones were probably the most dangerous of the enemies they were currently facing. None were heavily armed or armored. They didn't _need_ to be. Simon had been distracted by advancing enemies a few minutes before and he was unconscious now. He had been hit by a beam of some kind and gone limp. Before anyone could reach him, a golden drone had landed on his head. Horatius had destroyed the drone and Violet had torn the small golden ball from his forehead where the drone had clamped it, but no one knew if that would stop the transformation. Horatius did not want to shoot his own man, but if it came to it, he would.

"What do they _want?_" Susan begged from where she had crouched, out of the line of fire from the door. "This makes no sense!"

"Susan..." Horatius said as he fired again and dropped a Corrupted Lancer before it could fire. "The machine intelligence that is controlling these things is insane. It has been for a long, long time. No one remembers why. But..." He jerked to the side and a bolt of plasma that might have cored his helmet and killed him despite his augmentation passed him harmlessly. "Are any of your systems online?"

"No." The girlish voice was tiny. "Just my legs. I... What do they want? Me?"

"No one knows, Susan." Horatius said with a sigh as he fired again, killing another enemy. "Sound off ammo status! Five clips pistol. Two clips Penta."

"Twenty four clips rifle." Chris called. "Ten pistol." His Angstrum was a powerful weapon, but not a precise one, so he disdained it most of the time. He fired two quick shots and two enemies fell. "We can't stay here, boss."

The room had very limited cover available. The only good news was that none of the Corrupted seemed to have explosive weapons. Any of those would turn the room into an instant deathtrap. The team had upended tables and placed them as impromptu firing positions. The heavy metal construction deflected some of the plasma charges, but they were being whittled down little bits at a time by the tiny bits of sun hot fury. When the cover failed...

"Four clips Ogris." Violet called as she peered out of her cover. "Boss I see..." She gave a shrill scream as her cover suddenly resounded with many quick impacts and some of those impacts hit her, throwing her back and into view of the main horde. She went down in a hail of golden energy and stayed there.

"Damn it!" Horatius snapped as he saw a pair of Corrupted Heavy Gunners finally make an appearance. They were retargeting. They were slow and ungainly, but would be very hard to kill. Behind them... a horde of other Corrupted were approaching. He unslung his Penta. Before the enemy could even realize their peril, four grenades burped out of his weapon, each seeking a large concentration of enemies. Then he keyed the 'detonate' command and started reloading. "Obmar!"

His team knew what they were doing. Even before the grenades had detonated, Obmar was in motion, darting from cover and dragging Violet's still form back into the slim protection. The enemy recoiled, their assault blunted by the sheer power of the grenade launcher. They regrouped, massing for another push and he pulsed a pair of grenades at the Heavy Gunners. One fell, but got back up. Heavy armor indeed.

"She is hit, but alive!" The melee specialist called as he worked on his stricken teammate. "They are going to overrun us!"

"I..." Susan sounded... unsure. "I hear... a voice..." She said slowly. "It... isn't the same one..."

"Do you have coms?" Horatius demanded. "Can you talk to the outside?"

"I don't know." Susan said slowly. "This... I don't know what this means."

"What are they saying?" Horatius snapped as he loaded his last full clip into the Penta. "Obmar?"

"She is out. Stable but out." Obmar replied hefting Violet's Ogris. "Boss... I have never used this... thing."

"Point the end with the end with the holes at the _bad guys!_" Horatius said with a laugh that the others shared. Obmar fired and the rocket flew... wide. It hit a wall and did no other damage. He ducked as return fire tore into his cover.

"Sorry!" Obmar snapped as he reloaded the weapon. "This thing... Blasted Grineer _junk_! I have a few arrows left. Not many."

"Do what you can!" Horatius called. But then he paused as MOA made a noise of confusion. "Susan?" But she wasn't listening to him. When she spoke, it was calm, cool and precise.

"Susan is occupied." The voice was...different. "My name is Sierra. I am here to help. Do you declare 'Broken Arrow'?" Horatius stared at her. What the-? That was a distress call. A bad one. When...a force was about to be...

"'Broken Arrow'?" Horatius sat, stunned. "This..was... _planned for_?"

"Do you declare 'Broken Arrow'?" The voice demanded. "Susan can't hold that thing for long! _Do_ you declare 'Broken Arrow'?" It repeated urgently.

"_'Broken Arrow'_!" Horatius snapped, his aim returning to the enemies. Military speak for 'Being overrun!'

"Roger that." The voice said firmly. "'Danger Close'. I say again, _'Danger Close_'. Get your _heads_ _down_!"

"_Cover_!" Horatius called, praying he wasn't making a huge mistake.

The world lit up.

* * *

><p>The Orokin Marine Corps had always prided itself on being self sufficient. The ability to go anywhere humans could exist -and <em>then some<em>- and do just about anything had always been their hallmark. Not just warfare although that was what they were undoubtedly best known for. They had done humanitarian missions, they had assisted in natural disasters as their predecessors in the US Marine Corps, Royal Marine Corps and Marine Spetznaz had on occasion. It wasn't just good public relations, it was also good training. Natural disasters, whether they were earthquakes on the motherworld, massive sandstorms on Mars that buried entire settlements, acid storms on Venus that ate huge holes in the planetary domes that provided protection from the caustic vapors that still persisted in the atmosphere, or anything else, all required a degree of coordination and organization that few civilian relief firms could match. And it was good PR too. So, most of the manpower of any Orokin Marine unit was ready and able to move at literally moment's notice.

It made a massive difference in wartime too. The Sentients had been overwhelming. But the Marines had stymied them again and again until worn down by sheer weight of numbers. The lack of ability to use tech had hindered them, sure. But the ability to mobilize, to maneuver and hit an enemy where an attack _wasn't_ expected had been their stock in trade. Be everywhere and _nowhere_. Never where the enemy thought they were. And... One of their primary tenets was old style Russian, taken from their Marine Spetznaz forebears. если сомневаетесь, получить большую пушку! 'When in doubt, get a bigger gun'!

The notion of 'portable artillery' was nothing new. As far back as the Middle Ages, humans had been ingenious in finding new and better ways to hurl instruments of death and destruction for long distances. The advent of mobile armored vehicles in the First World War had started an arms race between armored vehicles and the means of defeating those armored vehicles that had not ended until the advent of the Orokin Empire.

The 'Ballista' anti-tank weapon was in many ways a throwback to earlier days. The first anti-tank weapons had simply been enormous rifles that fired insanely large and powerful cartridges. These had been sufficient to break the treads of the primitive armored vehicles of the day or in some cases, penetrate weak spots and damage or destroy the actual vehicle. As the vehicles had improved, anti-tank weaponry had improved. But the problem was fundamental.

A fixed position was always going to be defensive in nature. _Any_ fixed position could be out flanked or out maneuvered. So, the Marines had designed the small -well, comparatively small. The bore on the weapon was 200mm!- anti armor weapon to have its own portal generator. It could teleport! Add to that the self contained munitions, each tiny and sealed with no means of hacking and you had a _insanely_ powerful means of destruction with the only restriction on damage being lines of sight. But it _also_ had its problems. It was _incredibly_ expensive. Each round for the weapon cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 100000 credits. Then you had to _power_ it.

The dozen Marines who had come as crew and security had _all_ been carrying short term fusion power packs. Each of which connected to the machine. Not for the shot, mind you. For the _shield_.

As each Marine connected his or her power pack to the machine, set it down and backed away quickly, a hazy blow glow appeared on either side of the end of the barrel. The glow solidified into a glowing shield of blue energy. That was all that stood between the Tenno and Marines and a _very_ quick death. They were...

"_Broken Arrow!_" The call came.

"Up!" The crew leader snapped. "_Fire!_" He screamed and ducked. The weapon hummed for a moment as the gunner hit the firing sequence and prayed. No one had actually fired the weapon in millennia.

No one had _dared_.

Not only had no one known how to use it, but the sheer size and complexity would have made any reasonably sane person look at the size of the barrel and go 'Ahh!" before running _fast_ the other way. Grineer had tried to reverse engineer a buried one they had found. It... hadn't worked out so well for them. The crater _would_ stop smoking in a few years.

But _this_ one had not been buried in mud for all that time. It had been sitting in an armory, well maintained by the automated systems. It had been checked and rechecked by every trained specialist when the Marines had been reconstituted. They were still nervous. Who could blame them? Some ancient wit had scribbled 'One Death Star, pocket sized' on the gunsight housing.

But everything worked.

The tiny self contained cartridge propelled it's microscopic piece of sun hot fury forward. The shields blocked _most_ of the heat of the shot from reaching the Marines and Tenno. The temperature in the corridor became stifling and the deck would have burnt any feet not protected by armored combat boots or warframes. But that was just the side effects. The _backblast_.

The plasma charge that had been designed t pierce the heaviest armor hit the door and... went right through it. One moment, a large and armored locked door stood, blocking the way. The next? The whole door was gone. A glowing _hole_ shone in the wall as the edges of the hatch coaming _melted_. As the gun commander stared, he could see bits of Corrupted standing along a _long_ line of destruction that extended through several walls. The small bits that were left of the Corrupted were melting as well. But in the distance, the portal flared and _more_ Corrupted were coming!

"And _you_ said it might take _two _shots." Nikis chided Karl as the Rhino stood, his jaw obviously slack despite his closed faceplate. "Power up and get out of here!" He snapped at the Marines who were also staring at the destruction. They bent to their tasks, focusing on getting the anti-armor weapon away before the Corpus could get scans of it. "But for what it is worth? _Ooo-rah!_"

"Ooo-Rah!" The Marines replied as Nikis stepped forward, his BFG tracking. The four other Tenno followed, weapons ready. Karl, Two, Alicia and Aeron all stepped into the gaping jaws of hell, ready to meet it.

* * *

><p><strong>Way too close for comfort<br>**

"What the _hell_ was _that_?" Chris was not normally a loud sort. Loud snipers didn't generally live very long. No one blamed him. _Everything_ that had been in the corridor...was **_gone_**.

Horatius found himself curled protectively over the sobbing MOA as she lay on the floor with no memory of how he or she had gotten there. A quick glance showed the others rising to their feet. All except Simon and Violet who lay still.

"Violet?" He said harshly as he rose and checked his Penta. Susan rose slowly, her sensors whirring as she stared about. Four rounds, no spare clips.

"She is a mess." Obmar said, shaking his head as he stared at the long lines that had been scored in the walls, floor and ceiling of the hallway outside the room. The Corrupted hadn't had a chance. "Plasma? That was bigger than any of ours."

"She said... the plan was messed up. Had to change to a backup plan?" Susan queried, concerned. "She... I can't hear her now."

"Whoever it was just saved out asses." Horatius snapped. "We need to... Oh shit..." He went still as several Tenno appeared. He knew the warframe types. A Rhino, a Banshee, a Trinity, a Loki. But it was the Nekros that was leading them and the _huge_ weapon in its hands that had the Special Forces operator freezing. "Uh..."

"Boss..." Chris said, not daring to move as the Trinity stepped forward. She stood over Violet's still form and nodded. Then she moved to where Simon lay. She seemed to slump. The Trinity turned it's featureless face to Horatius and slowly and distinctly shook her head.

'"The Enemy of my Enemy'?" Horatius asked the room and the Tenno all nodded. "You are here for the portal too." The Nekros and Rhino nodded too. Horatius made a snap decision. Fight and die or accomplish the mission? No choice. "I think the MOA can close it. She took the name 'Susan'."

"What are _these_?" Susan sounded terrified now and Horatius laid a hand on her housing. "_More_ monsters?"

"No." A new voice sounded. One Horatius...seemed to remember? It came from a woman in a familiar uniform as she strode forward. The weapon too was familiar. An Orokin Marine. Horatius eyes went huge under his helmet as he saw the insignia. One stripe. "We may not be nice, but we _fight_ the monsters. So people like you don't have to. PFC Karen. Orokin Marine Corps." The woman said to Horatius.

"Commander Horatius, Corpus Special Forces." Horatius said formally, lowering his Penta slightly been though the Marine did _not_ lower her own rifle. "We need to shut the portal, but I have people down."

"_She_ can be saved." The PFC said quietly, nodding to Violet's still form. "He can't be." As Horatius turned look at Simon he went still. The man's helmet had turned _gold_. Horatius slumped. He knew what he had to do.

"I have got it." Horatius said with a sigh. "Can you.. Wait!" He tapped his com. "Cass?"

"Evac is still here boss." Cass' voice came into his ears. "You still have sixteen minutes. Although the two Marines with _rifles_ on me might make it a bit hard to keep my _deadline_..."

"I have a litter coming." Karen said quietly. "We cannot stay. We opened the door. That is all we could do."

"Much appreciated. And them?" Horatius nodded to the Tenno who hadn't moved.

"Commander... I am a _PFC_." Karen said with a laugh. "I know better than to try to order _anyone!_ Especially _Tenno_. They wanted in on this. They got in. Don't know why. Don't _care_."

"What is going _on?_" Susan begged as a pair of Marines ran in with small device between them. They slid it under Violet's still form and she was lifted into the air. They guided the unconscious Special Forces soldier out the door and towards where the entrance had been.

"Susan." Horatius said softly. "You were made to open the portal. You can _close_ it. We can get you close enough." The Tenno nodded. "If you touch it, it may close. Or we _will_ figure it out. But we have to move _now_." The Trinity stepped close and touched the MOA on the hull. Susan..stilled, her sobs quieted. What the-? Since when did _Tenno_ comfort?

"Good luck." Karen said as she retreated, her eyes on the distance. "To all of you." Then she was gone.

Everything went still as the Nekros laughed. Susan shied away from the sound and Horatius could not blame her. He felt... as if death itself was talking to him.

"_Fools_ trust in luck." The Nekros said if the thought of Tenno _talking_ was matter of course. Horatius had heard the Tenno Banshee on Larissa, but this... _this_ was _worse_. The Trinity laid her hand on the MOA again and Horatius could swear she was talking to the MOA, calming the girl who wasn't one. But that was insane. Almost as insane as the Nekros _sounded_. "_Professionals_ trust in _skill_ and _firepower_."

_**You**__**! **_The voice of the insane neural sentry was angry, but also held _fear_? _**You will **__**not**__** imprison us alone in the blackness again! You will **__**not**__**!**_

Horatius could see Corrupted approaching as he picked up Violet's fallen Ogris and transferred it's ammunition to his own weapon. _Lots_ of Corrupted. Even more than before. And these were _not_ the fodder. These were Heavy Gunners, Corrupted Ancients, even Corrupted MOAs. Drones hovered as well.

"No?" The Nekros said snidely. "Well then... I only have _one_ thing to say. '_SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE __**FRIEND**__!'_"

The world seemed to explode as the _beast_ of a weapon in his hands came to life.

* * *

><p><strong>(Nikis' weapon of choice in situations like this- A Dark Sector Gatling Gun )<strong>


	18. Chapter 18

**The **_**unlikeliest**_** of allies**

Horatius had seen all kinds of combat. All kinds of means of dispensing death. But _this_...

The long tubular _thing_ in the Nekros' hands was _whirring_. There were no discernible gunshots. More a whine. But what was undeniable was the sheer _torrent_ of metal that was flying towards the Corrupted. Horatius stared in awe as a Corrupted Heavy Gunner simply _disintegrated_ in the metallic hail. Then the whine stopped, but a whoosh sounded and a fiery trail arced from the Nekros to a group of enemies. The rocket exploded and pieces of Corrupted went flying. But they were _still_ coming through the portal! The Nekros took a step forward, and then another, the weapon tracking.

"We have to close it!" Horatius shouted over the resurgent whine that heralded lots of metal flying. He grabbed a set of ammo that had fallen nearby from one of the Corrupted and wonder of wonders, it fit his Penta! "Protect Susan!"

The Tenno split up. The Rhino ran off into the near distance, scooting forward, long golden blades flashing. The Banshee stood back, her bow at half extension. She would aim, fire and draw a new arrow in less time that Horatius took to breathe once. Every so often, he caught Obmar staring at her. Lusting for her or her golden bow? He didn't know. Or really care. The Trinity was hanging back, her own weapon, sort of like golden version of a Burston, was firing precise bursts, each hitting exactly where she wanted. But... she was standing between Susan and the horde of Corrupted that were now closing despite the carnage the Nekros was wreaking. The other? Horatius paused. Was that a _Snipetron_ in that Loki's hands? He hadn't seen one of those for a while. But the Tenno fired slowly and carefully. Each shot dropping a Corrupted no matter its size. Chris hunkered in cover nearby, his own Latron burping shots that were if not as powerful, then just as precise.

The insane Nekros was taking steady steps towards the gaping portal Horatius could see in the distance. No more Corrupted were coming out of it. Was that a good thing or...?

He dropped his right hand from his Penta, drew his Marlock and fired once from the hip. The drone that had been trying to blindside Obmar disintegrated. The former Prodman never noticed. He was lashing Corrupted with his Prova as the Marlock went back to Horatius' hip and the team leader fired a grenade into another clump of Corrupted. But Horatius' mind was whirling as he fought. Multi-tasking had come early.

Susan and the other who had spoken through her had spoken of a plan. What plan? That didn't make any sense. He hadn't known about all of this. Who could have possibly known about this? And why would they have set Tenno _and_ Corpus Special Forces into an area together? Under normal circumstances, all that would have done was trigger a fight that the Corpus Special Forces would lose. He was brave but not give to self delusion. Three of his people hale versus _one_ Tenno would have been bad. Against _five?_ Even not counting the monster gun that the Nekros was still using with cackling glee. No chance. So what the _hell_?

"Susan." Horatius said as he reloaded, staying close to the MOA as the Trinity did the same. "Did the other voice say anything else?" He could _feel_ the Trinity's scrutiny, but the Tenno did not pause in her firing.

"The...the mad thing was hurting me." Susan said and gave a cry as plasma arced close to her. Horatius dropped a grenade into the midst of the small group of golden forms that had managed to avoid the Nekros' fire and they all fell apart. "It wants me to hold the gate open. It said if I do... it won't hurt anyone. But I could tell it was lying. I said no and it hurt me. The other... she came. She was... kind. But..."

"Honey, it is okay." Horatius reassured her. "I know it is scary. I know that thing hurt you. But we _have_ to close the portal."

"I know." Susan said softly. "She told me the plan. I... I can close it." Her voice hardened. "But I have to do it alone. Get me to the portal and I can do it."

"All right." Horatius took aim and fired off all five of his grenades in rapid succession. As they detonated, he reloaded as he darted forward, the MOA at his heels. The Trinity kept pace with them. He saw Obmar slide into a group of Corrupted, golden limbs flying away from each hit of his heavily modified weapon of choice.

He paused as Chris rose. He bit back a groan as the sniper took a hit, but... The Loki spun in place, a sword coming out from somewhere to strike the Corrupted Ancient that had blindsided the pair. He knew what Chris had done. The Tenno sniper was more valuable for the mission and the mission came _first_. He prayed his teammate was alive, but they were closing on the target now. Corrupted were thinning. How many had they killed? Hundreds? _Thousands_? He ripped off his last Penta clip and slung it, drawing his Marlock and placing himself between the MOA and the few remaining...

Everything seemed to stop as an explosion sounded. The Nekros flew backwards but then he got up.

"You... broke my favorite gun." The Nekros sounded... off. Almost childlike. Almost. Horatius went still and moved between Susan and the Nekros as the Nekros made a sound more akin to an Infested Ancient that anything that _looked_ human. Anger, sadness, rage, pity... all of these... More. "You broke... my BFG..." He bent down to touch it. It was bent and obviously was not going to function again. "That was _my_ BFG. You _broke_ my BFG..."

"Uh oh..." Was the voice from the _Trinity? _Horatius went still as the Trinity moved to shield Susan from the Nekros too.

"All right." The Nekros said with a sigh. "I tried it the _Healer's_ way. Now we do it _my_ way." All four of the other Tenno were watching the Nekros warily and the Corrupted all seemed to retreat a step. An oddly shaped weapon seemed to simply _appear_ in the Nekros's hands. It had two barrels and... was that a _wooden_ stock? _Real_ wood? The Corrupted... retreated again. Everything stopped _again_ at the sound of a shot. Or was that _two_? A Corrupted Heavy Gunner stared down at the huge _hole_ that had been blasted completely _through_ the former Grineer's body before falling and lying still. "Oh no you _don't_!"

"Wha-?" Susan started to speak, but she went still as both Horatius and the Trinity laid hands on her housing.

"Don't move." It _was_ the Trinity speaking. What the hell? Tenno did not speak. Most thought they _couldn't_! "Don't _move_." Was she begging Horatius or Susan?

"You killed three of my kin last time..." The Nekros said, apparently calm as the weapon in his hands broke open and he fed two...things into it. "Now, you broke my favorite gun. So be it. _No more Mr. nice guy_."

_**You will not bind us alone in darkness again!**_ The insane machine intelligence snapped.

"No." The Nekros said, firing almost absently. Then again. _Two_ Corrupted Heavy Gunners simply fell apart. "This time I am going to **destroy** you. So... Might as well get on with it." There were less than fifty Corrupted left now, and no more were coming through the portal. "Listen up, you Corrupted screwheads! THIS... IS MY _**BOOM**__**STICK**_!"

Power erupted from the Nekros and Horatius could only stared as at least twenty Corrupted appeared around him. But... These...were transparent, composed of some kind of orange energy? Some kind of Tenno power? All turned their weapons on the other Corrupted. It was suddenly a general melee as the insane Nekros charged the remaining Corrupted, a pistol in one hand and the odd twin barreled weapon in the other.

"Holy crap." Horatius said but then he realized. The Nekros was drawing the enemy's attention! The way to the portal was clear! "Susan!"

"Stay here." Susan said quietly as she started of the portal, the Trinity beside her. The other three Tenno were moving to flank them. "Please."

"Susan..." Horatius chided her gently. "My job it stop this. I have to do the job." He moved to follow.

"You _can't_." Susan said sadly. "Please!" She begged. "You have already lost two of your soldiers!" Horatius shook his head. "I won't ask you to die for me!"

"Susan..." Horatius said firmly as he kept pace with her. "My mission is to and I quote 'Ascertain the situation and if needed close the portal'. The situation is out of control. We need to close the portal."

"It will not be out of control for long." Susan said firmly. She tried to move faster, but her chassis couldn't handle it and she slowed again. Something in her tone...

"Susan..." Horatius said quietly, maintaining his place as the Tenno closed ranks around her. The Nekros was tearing the remaining Corrupted to pieces with the aid of his holographic allies. Obmar was rising from Chris' still form. The melee specialist shook his head and started towards Horatius and the odd cavalcade.

"Closing the portal won't be enough." Susan said firmly, more firmly than she had spoken before. "If we do, Bek will simply start this again."

"How do you know that name?" Horatius asked, stilling. "We never said that name."

"No." Susan said sadly. "Sierra did. She explained the plan. It is a good plan." The Trinity laid her hand on the MOA's housing again as Susan gave a small cry. "You-..."

Whatever else she was going to say was tabled as a shot rang out. All eyes turned to where... Simon's form stood. It was half golden! Horatius's shot was joined by four others and his former compatriot simply vanished.

_**You lose!**_ The insane neural sentry snapped triumphantly as Susan's robotic form fell in a sparking heap.

"SUSAN!" Horatius screamed as he went to his knees beside the MOA. It twitched. "Susan? How bad?"

"Systems failing." Susan said sadly. "Get... Tenno will... put me in portal... run..." She said weakly.

"No." Horatius said firmly as he scooped up her form up. It was wet. Oil? Blood? Or something worse? "Obmar. Get to Cass and get out of here. That is an _order!_" He snapped as his com chimed. "Cass?"

"Boss... Violet is aboard and stable. Marines are gone. No scans. Everything is jammed." Cass' voice was worried. "I... we have to go. A response team is inbound. From the ship size? At least a company of troops. Bek's, I think." Obmar sighed and moved to take part of Susan's mass.

"Cass. Go." Horatius said softly. "We will be okay."

"Boss..." Cass said weakly. "I..."

"We _will_ accomplish the mission." Horatius said quietly. "Get Violet and the noncombatants _out_. Go." He ordered.

"Yes sir." The reply was soft, but Horatius could hear the transport's drives scream in the distance. If they got are enough away, fast enough, no Company built scanners could track them. "Hold the line, boss."

"Hold the line." Horatius agreed to an empty com band. He stepped towards the gaping portal with Susan's sparking form in hand. "So..." He asked conversationally as the Nekros stepped close. All of the Corrupted in the area were down. "Good plan. Backups and contingencies. Lots of intricate moving parts and most worked. That rarely happens in my experience. _Whose_ plan?"

"Yours." The Nekros said as he too took part of Susan's mass. They were bare steps from the portal.

"_Mine?_" Horatius demanded. "Is that some kind of _joke_, Tenno?"

"No joke." The Nekros said firmly as Obmar also seemed to freeze, his gaze sweeping from the Nekros to Horatius and back. He did not release his grip on Susan. "This is _very_ important. We are going through the portal. We cannot do what has to be done on this side. Whatever you see, whatever you _hear_, do _not_ let go of the MOA. If you do... you will be lost. And I need to talk to you."

"To _me_?" Horatius swallowed hard as the portal yawned close. The Rhino and Loki stepped through., Then the Banshee and Trinity. Then they were there. "I..."

"If this doesn't work out..." The Nekros said as he took another step. One more... "You make an old, angry man _proud_. Your mom would have been proud too"

"What the F-?"

Then they passed the threshold.

* * *

><p>The heavily armed response team of Corpus troops swept through the facility with grim purpose. But... they were not Special Forces. They were trained and programmed to follow orders. No more, no less. The Crewmen had about as much volition as the Ospreys and MOAs. Maybe less.<p>

It wasn't really their fault. Their orders were to find out what had happened and report in. They found destruction and dead Corrupted in large numbers. The jamming field prevented them from reporting so they sought the source. They found it.

The tiny device wasn't anything that they knew, so they called a Tech up to work on it. It wasn't _his_ fault that the trap had been set to go off at the first close range scans. Orokin Marines liked their secrets to _stay_ secret.

Add to that the plan that Horatius had come up with had always envisioned this. Leaving _anything_ of the facility for the Company to reverse engineer was a bad idea. But the noncombatants hadn't _done_ anything, so... Remove them. Then the inevitable Corpus response... They would follow procedure. It was hardwired into their brains. They could not _do_ anything else. They were not Special Forces, trained to adapt according to the situation. Trained to _think_. Trained to be insanely paranoid about traps. So...

As explosives went, the fusion charge that had been laid under the jammer wasn't that big. It didn't _need_ to be. Less than ten seconds after the first scan beam had hit the jammer the entire facility -including several _very_ surprised personnel who had been left on the Company transport- were glowing _embers_ orbiting Pluto. No evidence.

Bek would not be pleased.

* * *

><p>Down was up. Up was down. Everything was spinning, but he held on the MOA. Someone was screaming. It... sounded like his voice.<p>

"Don't let go!" The voice of the Nekros snapped in his ear and Horatius jerked as he opened his eyes. He stood...somewhere. But it felt... familiar somehow?

The room was... bare. The walls, ceiling and floor were composed of coruscating golden energy. He still held Susan's still form. Obmar held on with a grip that was likely as white knuckled as Horatius' was. And...where were the other Tenno? Just the Nekros was present.

"What is going on?" Horatius asked, aware of his throat hurting. He had been screaming.

"This isn't real, Commander." The Nekros said firmly. "This is a virtual world. We had to get here so we could take the battle to the AI. You were supposed to leave with your ship. But... the plan changed."

"Plans usually do." Horatius said with a grunt. "So... what now?"

"Now you stay here with the MOA." The Nekros said firmly. "We have...some backup coming. They are... a little different."

"Different like _you?_" Horatius couldn't believe he had just said that, but the Nekros just laughed.

"No." The dark and sinister form said calmly.

"So... what happened?" Horatius demanded.

"We went through the portal." The Nekros said with a shrug. "You are currently lying the the floor of an Orokin tower, to all appearances unconscious."

"But we... are not." Horatius said as Obmar stared around.

"Your minds have been sequestered for your safety." A new voice stated and Horatius went still as half a dozen tiny forms appeared around them. The... They were warframes, but... small. The speaker was a tiny Nyx warframe. "If the neural sentry can get access to you or... Susan is it?" She asked kindly.

"He called me Susan, but I dunno..." The voice of the MOA was scared and Horatius rubbed the hull gently. "You...were not supposed to come through." She said weakly.

"It's okay, Susan." The tiny Nyx said gently, kneeling beside the MOA. "Are you in pain? We can help."

"No." Susan said sadly. "But that isn't good, is it?"

"We have time, Susan." The Nyx's voice was soft and gentle. "Not a lot, but we _do_ have time."

"I am ready." Susan said quietly. "All of you... so brave..." She was crying softly. "What can I do but act the same?"

"Susan..." Horatius wasn't sure what was happening, but suddenly, the tiny Nyx had his hands and a tiny Frost held Obmars and no matter how he tried, Horatius could not move. "What? No!"

"We will not let you come to harm." The tiny Nyx said firmly as she moved Horatius hands away from the MOA who...stood. "This is virtual. Teacher. Go. They need you." The Nekros nodded and vanished.

"What is going on?" Horatius demanded, but a lethargy was seeping over him now. He felt... good. But...that was wrong, wasn't it?

"You were right." The small warframe that held him said softly. "There is only one way to stop this. To end this threat. Susan..." Sadness came into her voice now.

"I am not going to die, Ona." Susan said firmly. "Everyone was kind. They all explained. I _can_ do it."

"Do _what_?" Horatius demanded, trying with all his might to fight the feelings that were sweeping over him.

"Be at ease, Commander. You were right." Susan said, stepping close. Her robotic muzzle touched his arm. "I haven't had many choices. But _this_ I do choose. I will not die. Rest now. You have done all you could. Now it is time for me to do what_ I_ must. I _will_ get you home."

"Susan..." Horatius was fading. "What is going to happen?"

"Something _wonderful_."

Music soared in his skull. It...wasn't Clergy music. He was carried away by it as a voice started to sing a tune he didn't know. The voice singing was familiar. Susan. Darkness roared it's anger and fear, but the music would not be denied. The beautiful melody soared, eclipsing the darkness and _erasing_ it from existence. Horatius was crying as he fell asleep.

Tears of joy.


	19. Chapter 19

**Not the end**

Horatius woke, aware of several things. He was lying on something soft. He was not bound. Nothing hurt. He cracked his eyes and froze. His helmet was gone. His eyes flicked her ad there. The room was... It looked... odd. Archaic, but fully functional. He didn't know this style, did he? He went still as a hologram appeared nearby. The human woman had been crying, but now she saw him and smiled.

"Good morning." The woman said in a soft and kind voice. "How do you feel?"

"I am... okay." Horatius said slowly. "I feel... okay?" It was half statement, half query. "What happened?"

"The MOA you called Susan died, her systems failed." The woman said sadly. "But _before_ they failed completely, the Tenno did as your plan had specified. They destroyed the AI. There was a problem though. Without guidance, the tower systems would fail, swiftly and spectacularly. The tower would implode. Your plan always called for Susan to do what she did. You had hoped to explain to her, get her cooperation. _We_ did that. You showed her what true courage was. How could she do anything less?"

"Susan died?" Horatius wasn't that surprised. The MOA had been hit hard. He had...missed a step. He hadn't wanted to shoot Simon and it had cost them all.

"Her MOA form did." The woman said quietly. "But she is not gone."

"I do not understand." Horatius said weakly.

"I know." The other said softly. "Tower? Status?" She inquired.

-Tower systems online, Lady Kalina.- The voice was familiar. Susan! But... not. -Shift completed. All systems operational.-

"Susan?" Horatius felt faint. "She... _She_ is the Tower? But... it was mad..."

-The being you knew as Susan is no more.- Was the tower sounding...kind? -But she is remembered. Her memories are part of us. We... remember. We will aid.- Horatius sat, stunned and the tower intercom clicked off.

"If the Tower had failed, if nothing had taken the place of the neural sentry..." The woman -Kalina?- said sadly. "It would have self destructed. That was the original plan. Your team hits the facility, gets the non-combatants out, then the Tenno hit the tower and blow it to hell. Then you found out about the MOA..." She bowed her head. "Poor girl."

"Yeah." Horatius still didn't understand this. Not at all. "How can you say it was my plan? I don't remember any of this."

"You were captured by Orokin Marines on Mars." Kalina said kindly. "They took you back to their base and interrogated you. In the course of that interrogation... you were given information that shifted your worldview significantly." Horatius was shaking his head. "They wanted you to stay. You refused. You said that if Bek was doing the horror again, it had to be stopped. But there was a problem."

"So many backups of the pertinent data." Horatius said slowly. "Even a C&C MOA despite the best efforts of the Clergy."

"For what it is worth..." Kalina said with a sigh. "They had to reengineer _everything_. Start from scratch. If they do it _again_, they will have to do it _all_ over again. And even if they _do?_ It won't help."

"The tower said 'shift'..." Horatius said slowly. "You moved the entrance, didn't you?" Kalina smiled and nodded. "You... That whole mess... to _move_ the entrance?"

"No." Kalina said softly. "That whole mess to _destroy_ the insane neural sentry, put in a _new_ artificial intelligence -one that will be monitored and aided in every way-, get the non-combatants _out_ of the way, and deny Bek the means of _ever_ doing this again. He may be able to make more Command and Control MOAs. He _cannot_ access the Tower. And if he _does_ make more C&C MOAs? The Clergy and the Special Forces, let alone the _Tenno_... will _not_ be happy."

"Oh." Horatius said slowly. "I see."

"You are very good." Kalina said with a fond smile. "You were given access to every scrap of intel available and you came up with the plan in a matter of _hours_." Horatius shifted uncomfortably.

"It is what I do." Horatius said with a grunt. "So... now what?"

"The plan stated you and any survivors of your team would return to the Corpus." Kalina said quietly. "Bek will not be happy."

"Bek can go... _fondle_ himself." Horatius corrected himself in mid-sentence. "Pardon, Ma'am."

"Oh I _agree_." The transparent woman said with a chuckle. "He will _suspect_, but there is no evidence. He will plot. He will plan. But in the end? He _cannot_ outthink the Reverend Mother and Special Forces are too _useful_ to the Board to simply _downsize_." Her smile turned vicious. "Mission accomplished and you were never _there_. Well done soldier."

"Thank you." Horatius said with a nod. "So... now what? Obmar and I... are we prisoners?"

"No." Kalina said with a shrug. "Guests. Not prisoners. Your compatriot was hurt. So were you." Horatius jerked. "You never felt it. The augmentation kept your pain at bay. Then the neural trauma from the portal. Humans... do not react well to shifts in reality. But you were protected. You are alive and sane. Both of you have healed."

"I..." Horatius swallowed and stared down at himself. He wore some kind of golden hospital type gown. Then he shook his head. "Who are you?"

"I..." The woman seemed to wilt. "Your earliest memories. Your father and your mother... the teaching, training." Horatius stilled but then nodded. They had interrogated him. They likely knew everything he did. "They are false."

"False?" Horatius demanded, sitting up. The gown... did not cover him much. "What do you _mean_?"

"I am not saying that what the Clergy did was wrong." Kalina said softly. "They gave you a life. They took you in, made you welcome. Gave you a home and something to believe in." She shrugged. "There are _worse_ things to believe in than the survival of humanity."

"Okay." Horatius said slowly. "My memories have been edited... I get that. I have had it done before."

"Many times." Kalina said sadly. "We didn't know, Horatius. None of us _knew_. You have to _believe_ that. If you believe _nothing_ else we say, _please_ believe _that_. We didn't _know_. We wouldn't have _left_ you. Nikis at his _worst_ wouldn't have _left_ you if he had _known_!" She was crying now.

"Left me where?" Horatius asked, stunned.

He went still as two more forms appeared nearby. More holograms, a sad faced human woman whose visible body was covered in burn dressings and a... no, this man wasn't human. He looked human, but his eyes... they were old. Old and _scary._ The burnt woman took the crying human in her arms and held her tight. Her eyes were alight with compassion and sorrow as she gazed from the not-quite-human beside her to Horatius.

"My name is Nikis." The newcomer said quietly. It was the voice from the Nekros. But... not as insane. Calmer, sadder. "As you have no doubt guessed, I am Tenno."

"You made a _hell_ of an impression." Horatius said with a gulp. "You and that monster gun of yours."

"Man's gotta have a hobby." Nikis said with a shrug. "Mine is things that go 'boom'." The woman holding Kalina made a sour noise and he smiled at her fondly. "You hush." But it was joking. Not scary.

"From your words... we are related." Horatius said slowly. "But that is impossible if you are Tenno."

"Not impossible." Nikis said with a deep sigh. "Just improbably hard." He shook himself. "This story starts about hundred years before the Collapse. Kalina here had vanished. I went looking for her." Horatius did not move, didn't dare speak. The Tenno nodded slowly. "I found her. But...the insane scientists who had her... They trapped me. They were trying to clone Tenno. It didn't work. None of the clones they made were infected. Or they were _completely_ infected. Not the middle ground that Tenno were and are."

"I was... lost." Kalina spoke through her tears. "I... was so lost. I didn't know what was happening. It was all gray."

"You were brain dead, Kalina." The other woman said with a sigh. Horatius stared at her and then nodded. "Yes. Like Lis F-43 was."

"She got better?" Horatius wasn't sure about this at all.

"No." Kalina said sadly. "Nikis freed me."

"I _killed_ her." Nikis corrected the other sadly. Horatius went still and Nikis nodded. "I was... upset. The insane scientists had mutilated her. Worse than what the facility staff did to the girl you called Susan. I tried to save her and I couldn't."

"You _freed_ me." Kalina said sharply. "Stop beating yourself up, or I _will_ get _Janet_ to beat _you_. Clear?" Despite everything, Horatius had to smile at the comical look of fear that crossed the man's face. Kalina smiled at him, but then that smile fell. "The thing is... they did succeed. But only once. There were lots of what _they_ called failures. Clones who were completely infected, clones whose growth was stunted..." Horatius inhaled, remembering the tiny warframes and Kalina nodded. "Or..." She took a deep breath. "Clones that were _full human_." Horatius felt himself still. "We... I..." Kalina broke off, overcome and Nikis nodded.

"We thought they had destroyed all of their 'failures'." Nikis said quietly. "We were wrong. No one knew until the people who had you did a series of gene scans. What they found..." He shook his head. "I am not... a good man, Horatius."

"Neither am I." The Special Forces soldier said automatically. "So..."

"Best we can determine..." Nikis said softly. "A Clergy team was excavating some ruins and found a vault filled with broken Orokin tech. They also found one working piece of Orokin tech. A tiny stasis module with an embryo in it. The systems were failing. By some miracle, one of the techs was compatible. She took you into herself. But when she returned to the Corpus... they... They removed the embryo and mindwiped her to forget. Her whole team... to forget.."

"How do you know this?" Horatius was begging.

"Because _I_ told him." Horatius went totally still as a holo of the _Reverend Mother of the Corpus Clergy_ appeared beside the trio. "The two people who raised you... my predecessor had them programmed to raise you. I think what she did was wrong. But that is neither here nor there. She did it. We raised you. You turned out _marvelous_. But..." She slumped. "It isn't your fault, Horatius. It never _was_."

"So the reason I was always sterile..." Horatius said to no one and everyone. He had always _said_ it was injuries. It hadn't been. He simply... hadn't been capable.

"Was because you were...made." Kalina agreed. "_Made_ and then _thrown away_ as _useless_. Miserable _benighted_ Orokin _fools!_" She said angrily. The other woman hugged her tight as Kalina cried. "I am sorry, Horatius. I am so, so sorry."

"Not your fault... Mother..." Horatius said slowly, Kalina gave a small noise of grief and he shook his head. "Not your fault." He said to Nikis.

"Maybe not." Nikis said heavily. "But that does leave us with a quandary. You have chosen a dangerous life. A very dangerous path. I know war, Horatius. I have seen it. For a long, long time, I have seen wars come and go. I have fought in more wars than I want to remember. Killed more people than anyone should ever have to. It was needed, so I did it."

"I know the feeling." Horatius said softly. "I want humanity to survive. I always have."

"I know." The Reverend Mother said with small, sad smile. "Whatever you choose, dear boy... You have a home. Mercedes would love to see you. So would I." She bowed her head and vanished.

"She... knows?" Horatius said slowly. He stared at the human looking Tenno and then around, The room was golds and whites. Orokin. "I am in... the tower... and she knows..."

"She knows a lot." Nikis said quietly. "Not everything. No one knows _everything_. But she does have a point. I don't like her or trust her. But she does want humanity to survive. That is her goal. A noble one."

"She is pragmatism personified." Horatius said firmly. "If she can find way to use this... this..." He waved a slow hand to encompass the room. "This miracle..."

"No miracle." Nikis said quietly. "Just old fashioned guts and stubbornness." He snorted with dark humor. "And a well apportioned dose of high velocity _lead_." He sighed. "I am no good with this mushy stuff. Whatever you choose is _your_ choice. None of us have the right to dictate to you what to do." He bowed his head to Horatius and vanished. The woman who had come in with him nodded to Horatius and vanished as well.

"So... what do I do?" Horatius had never thought to hear his voice so small, so timid.

"Ah boy..." Kalina moved to sit on the bed beside him. He tried to touch her hand but his went right through hers. "I am not really here." She said sadly. "I want to embrace you. To make it all better. And I can't. All I can do is be here at times. Not often." She slumped. "Not nearly often enough."

"I..." Horatius shook himself and focused. "What are my options?"

"Option one? Keep working for the Corpus." Kalina said quietly. "You will wake up on your ship with the survivors and the non-combatants you escaped with. None of you will remember what happened no matter how hard the Board or anyone else tries to make you remember."

"I don't like the Corpus." Horatius said weakly. "Not even the Clergy. I do the job... but..."

"I know." Kalina said quietly. "Option two? You, the survivors of your team and the non-combatants you took disappear. Simply vanish and are never seen again. We will find something for you to do. I hear the _Marines_ are looking for recruits." Horatius had to laugh at the dry humor in her voice.

"Would they _take_ me?" Horatius asked, caught between worry and humor.

"Oh yeah." Kalina said with a smirk. "Someone... I have _no_ idea who... provided them with the holos of what you did to recue Mercedes. They... acted nonchalant. But I could tell they were impressed. Someone called it a 'Space Jam' assault. Something about jumping impossible distances. I think." She sounded a bit dubious.

"Cass, Violet, Obmar?" Horatius said softly.

"We would find things for them to do as well." Kalina promised. "But probably non-combat. The brainwashing runs deep in most. We can undo it. But it takes time. You and Obmar are just about free. Ona is thorough."

"She seemed a good sort." Horatius said quietly, his mind whirring. "That seems a waste of your time and our talents."

"I was afraid you would say that." Kalina said quietly. Horatius looked at her. "I don't want this. I don't. You have suffered _enough!_" Horatius just looked at her and she sighed. "All right... option three..."

Horatius froze as two holos appeared in the middle of the room. One he knew., The Reverend Mother looked just about in tears. The other? He couldn't see most of her face. But he knew who she was. _What_ she was.

"The _Lotus_...?" Horatius said, dumbfounded. "You... and _her_..." He stared from the Reverend Mother to the Lotus and back.

"We are allies, Horatius." The Reverend Mother said softly. "Uncomfortable allies, but allies. We were not always such. Once I hated her as much as any brainwashed worker does. But the more I dug, the more I learned... The more I _feared_. The more I _realized_... My duty is to _humanity_, Horatius. We _need_ her. She needs _us_. She needs agents inside the highest echelons of the Board. The Board may say they are neutral, but we both know they are _not_. Profits mean nothing if everyone _dies_, but many are blinded by their greed. Not all. But enough."

"Too many." Horatius agreed, remembering Mike O-12. "So... what would I do?"

_What you have been._ The voice of the Lotus was odd, but calm and gentle. _Protect humanity, serve the Clergy and the Board. You may be called on to take... other missions that seem odd. But that is nothing new for you, is it? _Was she _joking?_

"No." Horatius said with a sigh.

"Special Forces have been a thorn in the side of the Board." The Reverend Mother said softly. "But they are very useful. They will continue to be. And now? If you wish... We can _all_ be useful."

"You are asking me to lie to my people." Horatius said slowly. "I can't do that."

_No, we are not._ The Lotus said quietly. _We are asking you to tell them the __**truth**__._ Horatius went still. Just the _thought_ was preposterous. Wasn't it? _To find them. To train them. To use them. To __**lead**__ them. Not to serve the Board. To serve __**humanity**__._

"Just like that?" Horatius couldn't keep the scorn out of his voice and truth be told, he didn't try hard.

"It won't be easy, Horatius." The Reverend Mother said calmly. "But you don't _like_ easy, remember?"

"Before this... yes." Horatius said quietly. "Now? I don't know."

_You have time._ The Lotus' voice was still that soft and gentle thing. _If __**anyone**__ has earned a vacation, your team has._ The Reverend Mother nodded. _You and your team may leave that tower when you or they wish. They will not remember what happened. The others... we will have to find a place for them. They cannot resurface or..._

"Bek will kill them." Horatius finished the thought. "Doesn't matter if they are innocent or not. They were involved in something that blew up in his face. Literally. He will want to make examples of them." He sighed. "I need some time."

"We will give you time." The Reverend Mother promised. The Lotus nodded and both vanished.

"I..." Horatius slumped on the bed. "I don't know what to do..."

"There is another thing." The shade of his mother said gently. Horatius stiffened, but Kalina smiled. "Not _bad_ this time. You know all those scans that the ones who took you did? They determined the cause for your sterility."

"They can cure it."


	20. Chapter 20

**Back to work. Sort of.**

"You know..." Violet actually sounded... happy for once. A first in Horatius' experience. "Part of me still wants to stick a fork in you."

"And the _rest_ of you?" Horatius asked from where he sat, reading. The Tower had an incredible collection of media files of many kinds. Most history that Horatius had never heard of. This... George S. Patton guy he was reading about might have given a Grineer pause at times. Then again, the situation had been grim. He looked up from the book expectantly as Violet made a sour noise.

"Rest of me aches too much." Violet said, poking at the organic bandages on her side and leg. "This stuff is... odd. It should itch. _Hurt_... or _something_. Just an ache now."

"Would be inefficient." Cass was in heaven. Or as close to it as he was likely to get before dying anyway. He was literally inside a _functional_ Orokin tower. This was any Corpus Tech's _wet dream_. He had a schematic in front of him. Some kind of power system. Horatius hadn't asked.

"You poke that and the doc will get annoyed again." Horatius said with a smile. Violet just sniffed, but it hadn't been a laughing matter when she had been evacuated from the ship that had arrived at the tower. Somehow. Horatius...hadn't asked how. Or why Cass had been unconscious at the time. From what the docs said, it had been touch and go. But she was on the mend, if a long way from recovered. "Listen to the docs, Violet. They don't _have_ to be polite."

Obmar just shook his head from where he sat. He was doing something that looked remarkably like building a structure. But with some kind of thin things that looked like they were made of paper. Real honest to god wood pulp _paper_. They had some kind of pictures on them, but Horatius hadn't looked close.

They had...taken this better than he had expected. Waking in the tower had been a hell of a shock for Horatius. What had come after... He hadn't told them that. None of _them_ had asked. Violet's injuries had been tended by a team of medics who had appeared out of nowhere and vanished just as quickly. Violet had gotten up as soon as she had woken and the docs had been... a little irate. None of the team could miss the Orokin drone that hovered nearby, but... it didn't do anything. Just watched. All of them were creeped out by it, but the Tower systems had spoken, calmed everyone down and everything was still calm. For now.

"What is going on, Boss?" Violet said quietly, sinking back to her reclining position. The docs had wanted her in a bed, but she had flatly refused to stay down, so she was lying on her uninjured side on a couch of some kind. If it was anything like the chair Horatius was sitting it, it was firm but very comfortable. Cass sat in one of his own. Obmar was on the floor. "Obviously we are in a Tower and the AI..." She shook her head.

"The insane AI was destroyed and replaced." Horatius said quietly. "Susan's body failed. They took her mind and... somehow made a new AI for the tower from it." He shrugged and a twinge of pain lanced through his left shoulder. He couldn't see any remains of the injury he had taken. Apparently, he had been hit and only in books or bad entertainment holos did a shoulder wound do no damage. "Obmar and I carried the MOA through the portal. There were...some odd things."

"Considering what we know of Void energy, Boss." Cass had no humor in his voice now. "I am surprised you are sane." He paused. "Well, as sane as you ever _get._"

"Me too." Horatius agreed. "But we are. And... Now we have a choice." All three of the others looked at him. "The others can't go back. If they do, Bek will punish them. Likely downsize them. But _we_ were never there."

"Boss, those Board members know we were there." Violet protested.

"_Do_ they?" Obmar asked into the silence that fell. "And even if they do... Will they tell Bek?"

"We have to make the assumption that sooner or later it will be profitable for them to tell Bek." Horatius said with a sigh. "But..." He paused. "Tower?"

-Yes, Commander Horatius?- The tower replied. None of the other three jumped. This time.

"Have you gone over the data?" Horatius asked. The others looked at him and Horatius shrugged. "I asked the Tower to look over every scrap of data that Cass snagged. Not that you were _supposed_ to steal anything."

Cass looked innocent, but Horatius wasn't fooled. _Abigail_ might be an innocent who was forced to enter a life of crime to pay a debt. _Cass_ had been a computer criminal willingly. For the fun of it. But he had made the mistake of hacking a _Special Forces_ server. One clandestine snatch later, he had been given a choice. Work for Special Forces or die. He had chosen life. And truth be told? He hadn't looked back. Much.

-The facility was not operating under the orders of Board Member Frohd Bek.- The Tower replied. -An Underexecutive named Clem found the records and started the madness again. According to available source as, Board Member Bek is... unhappy with Underexecutive Clem, who has fled.-

"_Another_ renegade..." Violet said with a snarl. "_Just_ what we needed."

"Well..." Horatius said with a sigh.

"_Don't_ say it!" Violet snapped and tried to sit up. She hissed and the drone hovered closer. "Shoo!" She waved at the thing and it backed off a bit. "I _get_ that it is medical drone, but it _creeps_ me out!"

"Ma'am." Horatius went still as the head doctor from before stepped into view, his face stern. "We let you out of the bed with your promise that you would rest. You are _not_ resting."

"I..." Violet sighed and slumped back to the couch. "Fine." She said sourly as she lay back. "There." She snapped. "Happy?"

"No." The doc said in a matching tone. "But this is about as good as I am likely to get with you crazy Special Forces people." Horatius bit back a chuckle. From their expressions, Obmar and Cass both wanted to laugh, but knew what Violet would do if they did. It wouldn't end well. "The drone has medical sensors and monitors only. If you _break_ it, you _will_ pay for it. Clear?"

"Clear." Violet said with sigh. "Bunch of fracking tyrants..."

"Wait until you meet your therapist." The doc said with a smile, then he was gone.

"I can't _wait_." Violet said sourly. Then...everything stopped as a door opened nearby and a woman stepped out into view, a small form in her hands. Horatius went still. He knew _both_ of them! Violet and the others froze. Violet finally managed to find her tongue. "_Lacey?_"

"You always _were_ impatient, Violet." Lacey, the former team sniper, said quietly. She had a tiny form cradled in her arms. "Really guys..." Lacey said as she moved to the couch and sat down beside Violet. "You look like you have seen a _ghost_." She said with a smile.

"We... we thought you died..." Horatius said slowly. "I... they took... your body... I..."

"I wasn't _quite_ dead, boss." Lacey said quietly. "Close, but not quite. But Boss... I can't go back. They had to take out my augmentation to save my life. I..." She bowed her head.

"Lacey..." Violet held out a hand that the other woman took. "And who is _this_? Wait..." Horatius smiled as he saw the face. The arm...was a golden prosthesis.

"You knew him as Mike O-12." Lacey said quietly. "I just call him 'Mikey'." The other Special Forces soldiers rose and stepped close. "He has a long way to go to recover, but I will help him get there." Her face was tender as she held the tiny boy close and rocked him. He smiled in his sleep. "They have asked me to be a liaison of sorts. I didn't think it was a good idea. But she won me over. They all did."

"Who?" Violet asked.

"Her name is Eliza, but... For now, her role and location must remain secret." Lacey said quietly. "I will stay here. In the tower. I don't want to fight anymore. This one needs me. The others... need me."

"I see." Horatius said quietly. "So..." Violet, Cass and Obmar all looked at him. "That explanation... It started on Mars..."

* * *

><p>When Horatius finished there was dead silence. Lacy sat, her adopted son in her arms. Violet looked poleaxed. Cass was muttering something under his breath. Obmar...was just still. Horatius looked at the former Prodman and Obmar shrugged.<p>

"I didn't want to fight that Nekros even _without_ that BFG of his." The normally stoic and stern Prodman said calmly. "But if he actually is your _dad?_ No way in _hell_."

"I can't interpret genetic scans." Horatius said quietly. "Wouldn't know where to start." Lacy made a soft noise and Horatius turned to her. "Yes?"

"Not a major skill set for me either." Lacy said with a nod. "But... I do know how to interpret scanners. They showed me everything they had. Every reading. They were pretty persuasive. They showed me every trace of data. Every scan. Nothing was faked, Boss. I know the signs. There were not any. You are not Tenno, but you are related to one, Boss."

"Am I still your boss?" Horatius asked, and he was stunned when a tear fell from Lacey's eye. "Lacy?"

"You found me, a broken beaten wreck after the executives men had worked me over. They broke my legs and left me for you to find. They said they were going to have their way with me and then kill me when they returned." Lacy said softly. "I was in your way. I messed up your mission." Horatius shrugged. "No." Lacy said fiercely but quietly to keep from disturbing the tiny bundle in her arms. "You saved me. You took me somewhere safe. Got me healed. Gave me a place. Taught me how to fight, and when to. How to _think_, not just obey. You will always be 'Boss' to me, Commander Horatius. Always."

"Mission was stupid." Horatius said quietly, reaching out to take her hand. "_You_ were a godsend, Lacy. We always need more techs." Lacey started to cry and Violet took the boy from her as Horatius moved to the couch.

"You knew I was a _plant_." Lacey said, tears falling like rain. Horatius nodded. "You didn't _care_. You knew and took me in _anyway_. You knew they would try to get info on you through me. I..." She slumped. "I had no idea what family _was_. You covered for me, gave me a new home. A _real_ one. A chance to be _me_ instead of a liar and a thief."

"I have done some really dirty jobs, Lacey." Horatius said quietly. "I had to kill Jack..." He paused as Lacey shook her head. "What?"

"He was already dead, Boss." Lacey said quietly. "His heart was still going, but his brain was pulp. You know what he would have said. 'Mission first'." All four of the others nodded. "You accomplished the mission." She sighed and took Mikey back from Violet as the boy woke and gave a soft cry. He quieted in Lacey's arms. "I have to stay here. But the others... Some of them have dependents."

"Then we pull them out." Cass said with a nod. Horatius looked at him and Cass smiled wryly. "You know you will. Come on..." He held out a fist. Lacy placed hers on top of his. Violet laid hers on top of Lacy's. Obmar put his on. Horatius sighed and then, smiled wryly and gave in to the inevitable.

"For humanity." The Commander of Corpus Special Forces said quietly as he put his own fist over everyone else's. "But... everyone here has a vacation coming." The others looked at him and he smirked. "Violet has to recover. Cass is in hog heaven. Obmar and I... we need to think on how to extract some people from Bek's dormitories. But it can be done." He paused as Obmar shook his head. "What?"

"_You_ need a vacation too." Obmar said with a smirk. Horatius paused and then stared at his hand. At the _drug patch_ on his hand. "I will handle it."

"You... _sneaky_..." Horatius felt several sets of hands on him as he fell.

"Well, duh." Obmar said with a snort. "Trained by the best. We got this, Boss. Have a good vacation."

Horatius was cursing as music soared up to greet him. He couldn't fight this. He tried, but it was too strong and... It soothed him into sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Somewhere else<strong>

"Easy." The voice was familiar. Horatius woke to find himself lying on grass. He knew where he was instantly. The Reverend Mother sat beside him and she smiled at his expression. "What is with the _fork_?" She asked, nodding to the side.

Horatius turned his head and saw a small utensil sitting beside him on a blanket. He wore his spacesuit, but no helmet and no weapons. Of course not. No weapons were allowed it the breeding colony. Anyone who tried to bring them in was killed on sight. Even his augmentation was deactivated when he returned. He was still dangerous, no question. But he was a well trained and _highly disciplined_ instrument of death and destruction.

"A promise." Horatius said with a shrug. Then he shook his head as he glanced around.

As he expected, he lay on the portal platform of the breeding colony he had called home for the first seventeen years of his life. Then he had been called back occasionally to... help girls in their transition to women. It had... been good. But... it had never lasted. They had lives of their own. He... was a soldier. They had loves, families, duties. He had his own duty. He paused. He felt... different.

The old woman smiled and held out a note to him. On it in ancient flowing writing were three words.

'They cured it'

Horatius felt his world suddenly start to turn in circles and the Reverend Mother took his hand in hers.

"It has been far too long, my dear Horatius." The old woman sounded one step from tears. "I had despaired." He reached out and took her head.

_They said yes._ Horatius sent to the old woman. She was far too well trained to react. But a feeling of exultant joy flowed through her. _Obmar is going after the dependants, he will need backup and..._

_Shut it._ The old woman said sternly, but there was a twinkle in her eye as she spoke aloud. "Someone is waiting for you. Bay three. Room fifty seven. And _no_, you are _now_ on vacation."

"Reverend Mother..." Horatius said with a sigh, but then gave up. The old woman could probably outstubborn anyone. Maybe not a _Tenno_, but anyone _else_. He sat up carefully, but everything worked. The Reverend Mother held his hand as he rose slowly to his feet. "You are my escort?"

"I don't want you mobbed." The old woman said with no trace in her voice of the slyness that sang in her mental tone. Horatius slumped and started off, the old woman keeping up despite her apparent age. "As soon as the girls realize who you are... you _will_ be mobbed. You have...a bit of a following."

"Reverend Mother..." Horatius said weakly as she led him into a housing complex. "I am just a soldier."

"Maybe." The old woman said with an enigmatic smile.

"What have you done?" Horatius asked, coming to a sudden stop.

"Horatius..." The old woman said carefully. "You are always kind, gentle and considerate. You think of the _girls_ first. How many other men do you know who think of the _girls_ first?"

"A couple..." Horatius temporized, unsure of where this was going.

"Everyone was scared of the mechanical systems, Horatius." The old woman said quietly. "All of the mothers to be wanted it natural and we couldn't handle the load. Security was going bonkers trying to vet enough men. It wasn't going to _happen_. We _had_ to use the automated systems. So... On the recommendation of several people... we made some changes."

"What _kinds_ of changes?" Horatius demanded, then he froze as a _vision_ in white stepped out of the elevator and moved towards him. "I... Mercedes...?"

The executive assistant looked nothing like her usual self as she sauntered -there was really no other word for it- up to him. The gown covered her. Sort of. It... covered her enough for modesty purposes. Mostly. As long as she wasn't moving. Which she _was_...

"What did they _do_?" Mercedes asked in a soft tone as she pulled him close. "They made _cheap copies_." The Reverend Mother smiled, turned and left as Mercedes pulled Horatius unresisting form into the elevator. "You know the docs have done a lot of scans of you, right?" She keyed the elevator as Horatius hissed.

"They put _fake_ bits on the pro-...?" He trailed off as Mercedes shook her head. "_What_ then?"

"The machinery is now set to be soothing. To be gentle. To be... kind." Mercedes said softly as the elevator stopped. A pair of women, one pregnant and one not, stared at the pair. Both smiled and moved to the side as Mercedes half dragged the unresisting soldier out of the elevator. "They used a specific voice. Specific inputs. I was... consulted. I was ambivalent at first. But..." Her smile became a leer as she keyed a door open to show a small room. "_They_ get the _**copies**_. _I_ get the _**original**_. And... they told me... This will be _our_ child, Commander Horatius." She pulled her lover close as he started to cry.

"Vina wants a girl. _I_ don't care." Mercedes said as she turned him to the bed and sat him down. "I have _everything_ I want. _**Everything**_."

Then she kissed him.

* * *

><p><em>Well... that is that.<em> The Lotus cut the feed. _But __**what**__ is...?_ She paused and then sighed. _Oh._

"Bad idea girl."

The female voice came from nowhere and Abigail jerked from what she was doing. She had finished her normal daytime training cycle and was working on a special side project. She hadn't initially meant to hack that file, but Cass was an _artist_. His files were locked up tight. A definite challenge. But now her entire system had frozen! But... not Security. Just a black screen.

"Who are you?" Abigail snapped. "I just wanted to pay that scum back! For the poor girl they turned into a MOA."

"Oh he _will_ pay, but... you are leaving tracks." The voice said with a sigh. "An immediate giveaway. It is already done."

"I just want to see his _face_ when he opens it." Abigail said sharply. "That girl didn't _deserve_ that."

"Is _that_ all?" The other asked. "Okay."

A line of code appeared on her monitor and she paused before clicking it. Her eyes went huge as her monitor reconfigured all by itself. She saw two figures in Executive garb. One wasn't familiar. _Every_ Corpus employee knew the _other_.

"And _what_ is the _meaning_ of _this_?" Alad V demanded as the other cringed. "This..._filth_?" A holo appeared above his head. A female human in white. In chains. Blindfolded and gagged. Violet in her...disguise. "Twenty _exobytes_ of _this_? This _one_ image?"

"It was the C&C MOA file!" The other said desperately. "I can _get_ it! I _can_!"

"Guards, take this fool out and _dispose_ of him. Preferably out an airlock so his filth does not spread on... What?" Alad V demanded as every wall screen suddenly showed the _same image_! "A _virus_! You... You infected my _ship_ with a _virus_! Get him _out_ of here! And clean the _systems_! _Now_!"

Abigail stared as the screen went blank again. "Ummm..."

"You better clear your tracks before that image hits the net. Which it _will_. Humans are still human after all." The voice said quietly. "Because when _Operative_ _Violet_ find out...there _will_ be hell to pay."

"Oh dear." Abigail was hitting keys fast and furiously as the Lotus cut the connection. The AI who had once been human chuckled.

_Children..._

* * *

><p><em><strong>"<strong>__**CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!**__**"**_


End file.
